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HANDBOOK 

OF 

GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY. 


VASES,  BRONZES,  GEMS,  SCULPTURE,  TERRA-COTTAS, 
MURAL  PAINTINGS,  ARCHITECTURE,  &c. 


A.  S.  MURRAY,  LL.D.,  F.S.A. 

(KEEPER  OF  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  ANTIQUITIES  IN  THE  BRITISH  MUSEUM). 


OTttfj  numerous  illustrations. 


NEW  YORK: 
CHAELES    SCEIBNEE'S  SONS, 
743  &  745,  BROADWAY. 

1892. 


IH£  GETTY  CENTER 
LIBRARY 


PREFACE. 


To  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Scotland  I  ascribe 
the  origin  of  this  book.  By  their  choice  the  subject 
of  the  Khincl  Lectures  in  Edinburgh  for  1887  was 
"  Greek  Archaeology,"  and  at  their  invitation  I  en- 
deavoured to  explain  to  a  public  audience  the  main 
features  of  that  subject. 

Afterwards,  when  a  question  of  publication  arose,  it 
seemed  the  best  course  to  make  those  lectures  serve  as 
the  basis  of  a  "  Handbook  of  Greek  Archaeology,"  for 
which  there  were  many  demands.  There  has  been 
delay  in  carrying  out  this  plan,  but  the  delay  has 
been  caused  chiefly  by  the  extensive  additions  and 
alterations  which  were  necessary  to  meet  the  purpose 
of  a  Handbook. 

In  choosing  the  title, "  Handbook  of  Greek  Archaeo- 
logy," I  could  not  but  reflect  on  the  changes  that 
have  come  about  since  1848,  when  the  third  and  last 
edition  appeared,  of  C.  0.  Miiller's  famous  "  Hand- 
buch  der  Archaeologie  der  Kunst."  One  would  have 
expected  that  a  book,  so  singularly  useful  and 
successful  in  its  time,  would  have  passed  through 


iv 


PEEFACE. 


maDy  editions  in  this  long  interval,  each  new  edition 
brought  up  to  the  growing  wants  of  the  day.  But 
the  book  has  neither  been  altered  nor  superseded,  and 
if  we  ask  why  this  is  so,  we  find  no  better  answer 
than  that  Mutter's  plan,  lending  itself  more  readily  to 
the  accumulation  of  facts  than  to  the  statement  of 
generalizations  arising  out  of  facts,  broke  down  under 
the  rapidly  increasing  mass  of  new  materials. 

Since  1848  there  has  been  a  continuous  effort, 
especially  in  Germany,  to  group  the  innumerable 
facts  of  Greek  Archaeology  and  to  deduce  from  them 
general  truths.  The  result  is  that  we  have  now  a 
large  body  of  accepted  truth,  to  which  we  can  refer  as 
such,  without  at  every  step  citing  a  mass  of  facts  in 
support  of  it.  Doubtless  there  is  in  the  early  history 
of  Greece  much  that  is  still  obscure  and  uncertain ; 
but  on  the  whole  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  time  had 
now  come  when  it  was  possible  to  construct  a  Hand- 
book of  Greek  Archaeology  in  reliance  on  well- 
discussed  and  generally  accepted  truths,  leaving  aside 
the  accumulation  of  details,  and  maintaining  a 
constant  endeavour  to  state  as  broadly  as  was  in  my 
power  what  experience  has  taught  me  to  be  the 
leading  features  of  the  subject.  It  seemed  to  me  also 
that  a  Handbook  on  these  lines  was  specially  necessary 
in  this  country,  where  the  materials  of  study,  amassed 
in  the  Greek  collections  of  the  British  Museum,  are 
so  unrivalled  in  their  wealth,  and  where  of  late  years 
a  wide  interest  in  the  subject  has  taken  root. 

The  first  chapter  deals  with  the  primitive  condition 


PKEFACE. 


V 


of  artistic  industries  in  Greece  down  to  the  stage  at 
which  the  various  arts  began  to  assume  a  distinct  and 
independent  position.  From  that  point  I  have  traced 
the  history  of  each  art  separately,  in  the  belief, 
founded  on  experience,  that  more  was  to  be  gained  by 
keeping  continuously  before  the  mind  the  growth  and 
development  of  one  branch  of  art  at  a  time  than  by 
taking  them  all  collectively  in  successive  periods. 

In  the  chapters  on  sculpture,  vase-painting  and 
architecture  I  have  sought  to  give  prominence  to  the 
main  facts,  but  have  avoided  the  many  questions  of 
minor  interest  for  which  the  student  desirous  of 
prosecuting  the  matter  farther  may  turn  to  special 
books  on  these  subjects.  But  in  the  chapter  on 
painting  I  have  allowed  myself  an  apparently  dis- 
proportionate space,  on  the  ground  that  this  branch 
of  study  has  not  yet  received  the  attention  it  deserves 
in  this  country. 

To  those  who  may  miss  a  chapter  on  Greek  coins, 
with  their  great  and  varied  artistic  beauties,  I  can 
only  plead  that  Greek  coins,  in  justice  to  themselves, 
would  require  more  space  than  could  be  accorded 
them  in  a  Handbook  side  by  side  with  the  higher  and 
more  spontaneous  arts  of  Greece. 

A.  S.  MUKEAY. 

British  Museum, 

November,  1891. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Introduction   1 

II.  Primitive    Period,    Earliest    Stages  of 
Pottery,    Gem-Engraving,    Work  in 

Glass,  Bronze,  Gold,  etc   6 

III.  Continuation   of  the   History  of  Vase- 

Painting    58 

IV.  Designs  Incised  on  Bronze   117 

V.  Engraved  Gems   146 

VI.  Sculpture  in  Relief   174 

VII.  Statuary   239 

VIII.  Terra-Cottas   310 

IX.  Painting   348 

X.  Architecture   444 

Index   475 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Cameo         .......  Frontispiece 

Vase,  black  ware   ......       .       .  6 

Marble  xoanon      .        .        .        .....  9 

Aryballos,  incised  ware,  Cyprus       .....  10 

Primitive  vases      .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  PI.  I. 

Vases  from  Cyprus.        .        .        .        .        .        .  .12 

Primitive  vases      .......        PI.  II. 

Vase  of  variegated  glass  .......  18 

View  of  tombs  at  Mycenae       .        .        .        .       .  .20 

Ornaments  of  glass,  Ialysos     ......  21 

Ornaments  of  gold,  Mycence    ......  22 

Gold  cups,  Mycenae        .......  24 

Glass  rosettes,  Ialysos    .......  26 

Vases  with  aquatic  designs      ......  27 

Vase  with  spiral  patterns        .        .        .        .        .  .28 

Pseud  amphorae,  Ialysos  .......  28 

Ivory  statuette,  Ialysos  .       .       .       .       .        .  .30 

Bronze  weapons,  Ialysos .        .       .       .       .        .  .31 

Primitive  vases     .        .       .       .       .        .       .       PI.  III. 

(Enochoe,  geometric  patterns  .       .       .       .       .  .33 

Vases  with  geometric  patterns  ......  34 

Lebes,  geometric  patterns        ......  35 

(Enochoe,  Phaleron  class.        ......  36 

Lebes  (Burgon),  Athens  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  37 

Primitive  engraved  gems        .....  41-46 

Bronze  sword,  Mycenae   .        .        .        .        .        .  .51 

(Enochoe,  Camiros  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .59 

Lebes,  Naucratis    ........  60 

(Enochoe,  Camiros  .......  62 

Athenian  lekythos  PI.  IV. 


X 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Vase  (Polemarchos),  Naucratis ......  69 

Kylix,  Cyrene  style       .......  70 

Pinax,  Camiros      ........  78 

CEnochoe,  Corinthian      .        .        ,        .        .        .  .80 

Si  tula,  Daphnse     .        .        .        .        .        .        .  .81 

Amphora,  black  figure    ,        .        .        .        .        .  .87 

Hydria,  by  Panphaeos     .......  90 

Kylix,  red  figure    .        .        .        .        .        .        .         PI.  V. 

Amphora     ........       PI.  VI. 

Two  red  figure  vases      ......      PL  VII. 

.   PL  TDL 

Sphinx  vase  PL  IX. 

Panathenaic  amphora  '.*.'.        .        .        .        PI.  X. 

Costume  ■  .        .       PL  XL 

Bronze  cuirass,  Olympia  .......  122 

„     disc,  incised       .......  123 

„     mirror  case,  incised      .        .        .     '  .        .  .124 
„     Etruscan  mirror  .        .        .        .        .        .  .129 

„  „       cista     .      '  .        .        .        .        .        .  136 

 142 

Border  of  cista   143 

Engraved  gems,  intaglios        .        .        .        .        .PL  XII. 

Cameo,  Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus  .        .        .        .PL  XIII. 

Lion  gateway,  My  cense  .        .        .        .        .       .  .178 

Bronze  gate,  Balawat      .        .        .        .        .        .  .179 

„     relief,  Athene      .......  189 

Doric  temple  at  Assos     .......  192 

Frieze  of  Doric  temple  at  Assos        .        .        .        .  .194 

Reliefs  of  pediments,  Athens    .....      196, 197 

Relief,  warrior  of  Marathon      .        .        .        .        .  .198 

Selinus,  Metope   .200 

Drum  of  archaic  temple,  Ephesus     .....  202 

Slab  of  Harpy  tomb       .......  204 

Centre  of  west  pediment,  Olympia    .        .        .        .PL  XIV. 

Part  of  Parthenon  frieze  ......      PL  XV. 

View  of  Panathenaic  procession        .....  212 

Metopes  of  Parthenon  215,  216 

Slab  of  Phigaleian  frieze  .......  219 

Slab  of  Victory  Temple,  Athens  220 

Slab  of  Mausoleum  frieze        ......  223 

Bronze,  Victory  slaying  ox      .....  227 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  xi 


PAGE 

Bronze,  relief  on  mirror-case    ....        .        .  229 

„     relief  on  mirror-case,  two  Athenes .        .        .        .  231 

One  of  the  bronzes  of  Siris      ......  233 

Relief,  dancing  figure,  Athens  .        .        .        .        .  .235 

Terra-cotta  panel  ........  236 

Polledrara  bust      ........  241 

Torso  from  Marion,  Cyprus      ......  246 

Hera  of  Samos,  Louvre  .        ...        .        .        .  247 

Nike  of  Archermos,  Athens     ......  247 

Bust  of  Acropolis  statue  .......  251 

;>  J?  )9     v   •         .   •         ,  •  '     '5*''.  .Yll    •»       V  "V  '      •   i  252 

Statue  by  Antenor ........  254 

Harmodios  and  Aristogeiton    ......  255 

Bronze  head,  archaic,  Athens  ......  262 

Victory  of  Pseonios,  Olympia    .        .        .        .        .  .265 

Theseus  of  Parthenon     ......     PL  XYI. 

Fates  of  Parthenon  PL  XVII. 

Statue  of  a  Diadumenos  .......  276 

Caryatid  of  Erechtheum  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  277 

Bronze  leg    .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  278 

Hermes,  by  Praxiteles  PI.  XVIII. 

Female  figure  mourning  .......  284 

Demeter  of  Knidos.        .        .        .        .        .        .     PI.  XIX. 

Two  large  statuettes       .        .        ....      PI.  XX. 

Bronze  portrait  head      .......  292 

Marble  head,  Pergamene  school        .....  299 

Boy  picking  thorn  from  foot    ......  300 

Bronze  boxer,  Rome       .......  304 

,,     athlete,  Rome     .        .        .        .        .        .        .  305 

Tanagra  statuettes .......  311-313 

Mould  for  terra-cotta  statuette .        .....  318 

Terra-cotta  mask   ........  320 

„        group  from  Centorbi       .....  322 

„        heads  from  Sicily  ......  326 

„        primitive  figure     .        .        .        .        .  .327 

„        figure  from  Pompeii       .....  333 

„        Bellerophon  slaying  Chimsera  ....  337 

„        Perseus  slaying  Gorgon  .....  338 

,,        archaic  figure        ......  340 

„        Hermes  Criophoros.        .....  341 

Painting,  bull  of  Tiryns  352 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Fompeian  fresco,  lady  painting        .        .       .        .        .  395 

Incised  design  on  ivory  .                       ...  396 

Fresco  from  Farnesina  Gardens        .        .       .        .        .  406 

„     house  of  Germanicus    ......  409 

„     garden  scene,  Porta  Prima     .        .               .       .  412 

Examples  of  Mural  Decoration .....  414-423 

Stucco  reliefs,  Farnesina  Gardens     .....  440 

Acropolis  of  Athens,  view       .        .        .        .        .        .  444 

Tomb  of  Agamemnon,  Mycenae,  plan        .       .        .        .  446 

„            „              „       pilaster  restored        .       .  447 

House  at  Piraeus,  plan     .......  453 

„     of  the  Quaestor,  Pompeii ......  454 

„     with  verandah,  Pompeii ......  456 

Doric  temple,  iEgina      .......  457 

Doric  order   .........  458 

Ionic  order    .........  459 

Corinthian  order     .        .        .        .        .        .        .        .  460 

Monument  of  Lysicrates  .......  464 

Plan  of  Parthenon  ........  465 

„     temple  at  Phigaleia  (Bassae)  .....  465 

„         „     of  Zeus  at  Agrigentum       ....  466 

Telamon  from  temple  of  Zeus  at  Agrigentum      .       .        .  469 


HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHEOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  tendency  of  Greek  archaeology  for  a  considerable 
time  past  has  been  to  confine  observation  and  study 
to  works  of  sculpture  and  painting.  It  admits  such 
other  productions  of  art  as  may  be  classed  with 
sculpture  and  painting,  in  however  humble  a  degree  ; 
for  example,  engraved  gems,  coins,  designs  incised  on 
bronze,  and  even  inscriptions,  whether  painted  or 
incised.  But  the  artistic  element  is  insisted  on  as  the 
guiding  principle. 

This  tendency  has  been  created  by  the  vast  accumu- 
lation of  material  resulting  from  excavations  in 
Greece,  in  Greek  colonies,  and  in  districts  where 
Greek  works  of  art  were  largely  imported,  as  in 
Etruria.  It  has  been  found  necessary  to  reduce  this 
material  to  order,  and  in  this  endeavour  to  bring  about 
order,  it  has  been  perceived  that  the  most  natural 
bond  by  which  all  this  variety  of  productions  could  be 
united  and  presented  in  a  continuous  system  was  the 
bond  of  artistic  development. 

But  though  Greek  archaeology,  in  its  present  con- 
dition, may  be  described  as  principally  a  study  of 

B 


2         HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  I. 

Greek  art  and  handicraft,  yet  this  is  not  necessarily 
its  whole  scope.  Statues,  painted  vases,  gems  and 
coins  are  works  of  art  in  the  first  instance  ;  but  when 
their  artistic  position  shall  have  been  settled,  we  may 
find  that  there  are  other  considerations  also  attaching 
to  them.  To  take  the  painted  vases  as  an  example, 
there  was  a  time  when  the  chief  attraction  they  exer- 
cised lay  in  the  mythical  or  legendary  subjects  which 
they  represented.  It  was  perfectly  just  to  take  that 
view  of  the  vases,  because  the  subjects  painted  on 
them  were  such  as  to  touch  closely  on  spheres  of 
thought  which  had  been  no  monopoly  of  the  artist, 
which  had  in  fact  been  shaped  to  his  mind  by  other 
agencies.  But  the  view  was  inopportune  just  then, 
when  the  artistic  side  of  the  question  had  not  been 
settled.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  inopportune  to  proceed 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  subjects  represented  in 
works  of  art  when  as  yet  the  technical  manner  and 
method  of  representing  them  were  in  doubt. 

It  is  not  argued  that  interpretation  of  subject  should 
stand  over  till  every  artistic  doubt  has  been  removed  ; 
but  only  that  the  interpretative  method  should  at 
least  be  so  far  allied  with  the  artistic  as  to  enable  the 
student,  on  every  possible  occasion,  to  compare  the 
different  manner  of  different  centuries  in  the  repre- 
sentation of  one  and  the  same  subject.  Dio  Chrysos- 
tom  (Orat.  52)  tells  of  his  having  one  morning  taken 
up  three  dramas  of  iEschylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides, 
each  founded  on  the  painful  story  of  Philoctetes,  and 
he  goes  on  to  state  the  characteristic  differences  of  the 
three  dramas.  Similarly  the  interpretative  method  of 
study  might  take,  as  one  example  out  of  many,  the 
battle  of  Greeks  and  Amazons  as  represented  on  works 
of  art  of  different  periods,  notably  on  the  three  friezes 


Chap.  I.] 


INTKODUCTION. 


3 


of  Phigaleia,  Athena  Nike,  and  the  Mausoleum.  If, 
then,  the  artistic  element  must  be  the  first  consideration 
in  Greek  archaeology,  and  if  its  main  features  have  by 
this  time  been  defined  with  reasonable  accuracy  as 
regards  those  periods  of  art  in  which  mythical  and 
legendary  subjects  abound,  it  will  be  undoubtedly 
useful  to  make  a  simultaneous  study  of  those  subjects ; 
and,  if  useful,  all  the  more  a  duty  because,  while  the 
history  of  Greek  art  may  in  a  manner  be  prosecuted 
without  a  knowledge  of  Greek  literature,  the  subjects 
represented  by  it  cannot  be  enquired  into  without 
that  knowledge.  And,  in  fact,  a  knowledge  of  that 
literature  in  its  application  to  works  of  art  consti- 
tutes a  chief  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Greek 
archaeologist. 

It  is  to  be  observed  also  that,  in  tracing  the  artistic 
progress  of  a  nation  through  a  long  period  of  time, 
and  amid  many  varieties  of  artistic  production,  it  is 
the  custom  to  go  continuously  forward,  noticing  mainly 
the  salient  points  of  transition  from  one  stage  to 
another,  overlooking  what  art  itself  had  overlooked  in 
its  progress  or  haste,  and,  in  short,  regarding  the 
development,  such  as  it  was,  as  inevitable.  No  con- 
venient opportunity  presents  itself  of  blaming  one  age 
for  the  neglect  of  an  idea,  perhaps  lying  on  the 
surface,  which  a  subsequent  age  has  observed  and 
utilised.  It  is  rare  that  an  occasion  offers  for  the 
student  to  stop  and  consider  what  has  remained  un- 
altered in  the  changes  from  age  to  age — what,  in  fact, 
constitutes  the  essentially  Greek  element  in  works  of 
art.  We  know  the  changes  assignable  to  particular 
periods,  but  we  do  not  fully  observe  what  has  remained 
unchanged.  To  many  who  have  made  no  special  study, 
this  unchanging  element  of  Greek  art  appeals  with 

b  2 


4         HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  I. 


force,  and  continually  awakens  a  deep  sense  of  delight, 
and  therefore  the  student  should  be  advised  never  to 
let  out  of  view  the  permanent,  essential  character  of 
Greek  art. 

Take  any  chance  piece  of  Greek  art  that  may  come 
in  our  way  ;  it  will  most  probably  represent  a  subject 
in  which  gods  or  legendary  heroes  are  engaged,  a 
scene  which  looks  as  if  it  may  have  happened  at  any 
time  and  in  any  place.  No  doubt  there  are  also 
numerous  scenes  from  daily  life,  serious  or  grotesque ; 
but  the  overmastering  tendency  was  to  impregnate  the 
mind  with  a  sense  of  the  existence  of  higher  beings, 
who  governed  the  world  always  and  from  all  time. 
For  this  principle  we  have  the  phrase  "  Greek  ideal- 
ism " ;  but,  amid  the  study  of  details,  we  are  apt  to 
forget  it  and  its  vast  potency.  Or,  to  take  a  strictly 
technical  point  of  view,  is  it  not  strange  that  in  the 
latest  stage  of  vase-painting,  we  should  find,  coming 
up  again  conspicuously,  certain  elements  of  decoration, 
such  as  the  rosette  and  wave  pattern,  which  for 
centuries  had  been  abandoned  ?  The  new  application 
of  these  ornaments  is  so  different  in  many  ways  from 
the  old  application  as  to  exclude  any  question  of  a 
conscious  revival  of  them.  It  seems  rather  as  if  the 
old  method  had  for  a  long  period  been  relegated  to 
obscurity  by  the  advance  of  a  higher  and  nobler 
conception  of  art ;  but  had  subsequently,  when  the 
higher  impetus  failed,  re-asserted  its  original  power 
and  attraction.  The  old  age  of  art  may,  like  old  age 
in  man,  fall  back  naturally  on  the  delights  of  its 
youth.  At  all  events,  it  is  worth  the  student's  while 
to  endeavour,  as  often  as  possible,  to  get  outside  of 
the  study  of  mere  progress,  and  to  think  of  what  was 
not  progressive,  but  innate,  in  the  Greeks. 


Chap.  I.] 


INTRODUCTION. 


5 


The  subjects  represented  in  Greek  art  are  naturally 
most  interesting  during  the  periods  in  which  art  went 
hand  in  hand  with  the  higher  literature  of  the  nation, 
when  art,  like  poetry,  was  master  of  its  technical 
processes,  and  was  directing  that  mastery  to  the  region 
of  imagination  and  fancy,  where  the  best  minds  of 
the  nation  delighted  to  wander.  Art  was  then  at  its 
best ;  but  there  came  a  time  when  the  national  imagi- 
nation fell  into  decay,  and  when  art  retained  little 
more  than  its  technical  or  manipulative  skill.  In 
that  period  there  is  obviously  nothing  for  the  inter- 
pretative method  to  do  but  to  indicate  broadly  the 
state  of  things.  So  also,  going  back  to  early  times, 
we  find  a  long  period  of  primitive,  and  then  archaic 
art,  in  which  there  had  been  no  demand  on  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  skilled  workman,  and  little  to  interpret 
in  the  way  of  subject. 

We  have  to  deal  with  (1)  a  primitive  period  of  mere 
handicraft ;  (2)  an  archaic  period,  in  which  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  workman  comes  into  play  and  gradually 
raises  him  into  an  artist ;  (3)  a  period  of  maturity  both 
as  regards  imagination  and  skill ;  (4)  a  period  of  decline 
of  the  imagination  and  negligence  of  execution. 

It  is  proposed  to  consider  the  remains  of  Greek  art 
and  industry  according  as  they  fall  within  these  four 
periods.  In  the  first  period  we  shall  class  together 
the  various  handicrafts  in  their  contemporaneous  cha- 
racter. But  subsequently  when  each  handicraft  emerges 
into  what  may  be  called  a  fine  art,  we  shall  take  up 
each  separately  and  follow  it  through  its  various  stages 
to  its  close. 


6         HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  II. 


CHAPTEE  II. 

PRIMITIVE  PERIOD,  EARLIEST  STAGES  OF  POTTERY, 
GEM-ENGRAVING,  WORK  IN  GLASS,  BRONZE,  GOLD,  ETC. 

dyaOr)      epis  fj8e  fiporo'io'i 

KCU  K€pafJL€VS  K€paflH  KOT€€L  KOI  T€KTOVL  T€KT(DV. 

Hesiod,  *  Works  and  Days'  24. 

In  view  of  the  changing  conditions  under  which 
primitive  people  have  always  lived,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  they  should  have  left  no  more  permanent 
memorials  of  their  existence  than  their  tombs.  All 
else  is  apt  to  be  swept  away  by  subsequent  civilization. 
The  graves  remain,  and  it  is  to  them  that  we  must 
first  turn  in  Greece,  as  in  other  ancient  countries. 
For  the  present  we  must  be  content  without  dates. 
In  time  it  may  be  that  some  more  definite  conception 
may  arise  than  is  now  conveyed  by 
the  vague  word  "  primitive." 

Plate  I.  is  intended  to  illustrate 
the  pottery  found  in  primitive  tombs, 
and  here  it  should  be  observed  that 
the  contents  of  such  tombs  very 
largely  consist  of  earthenware. 
Nos.  1,  2,  3,  8,  and  Fig.  1  represent 
the  oldest  class.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  patterns  on  them  have  been 
produced  by  incised,  or  punctured, 
lines,  arranged  in  zigzags,  much  as  on  the  primitive 
pottery  of  Britain,  but  with  this  difference,  that  the 


Fig.  l. 


Black  ware — punc- 
tured lines.  Cyprus. 

Brit.  Mus. 

Ht.  3J  in. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


7 


examples  from  Greece  (see  PL  I.  No.  1)  are  much  more 
finely  executed  than  those  of  Britain.  Again,  it  should 
be  observed  that,  in  the  Greek  specimen  just  referred 
to,  there  is  the  primitive  characteristic  of  want  of 
handles,  or  nearly  so.  We  may,  indeed,  regard  as 
rudimentary  handles  the  two  projecting  ears  on  the 
sides  of  the  vase,  through  which  vertical  holes  are 
pierced,  apparently  for  a  cord  to  pass,  and  thus 
to  provide  a  means  of  carrying  the  vase.  Such 
vases  seem  to  have  been  made  to  be  held  with  both 
hands,  and  doubtless  this  was  the  form  of  vase  that 
was  first  invented.  We  do  not  suggest  that  this 
vase  actually  carries  us  back  to  the  very  first  invention 
of  earthenware  in  Greece.  The  decoration  is  too  rich 
for  such  a  stage,  and,  further,  we  see  from  the  vase 
No.  2  (PI.  I.),  which  was  found  in  the  same  set  of 
tombs,  that  it  has  a  handle  and  a  skilfully-shaped 
mouth,  both  of  which  facts  are  evidence  of  at  least  a 
secondary  stage  of  advancement — a  stage,  however,  in 
which  the  older  shapes  and  manner  of  decoration  were 
still  retained. 

It  may  be  convenient  to  describe  here  the  mode 
of  burial,  and  the  general  contents  of  the  tombs  in 
which  these  two  Greek  vases  were  found  (PI.  I., 
Nos.  1  and  2).  They  were  found  in  tombs  in  the 
small  islands  of  Amorgos  and  Antiparos,  excavated 
by  Mr.  J.  Theodore  Bent 1  in  1884.  These  graves,  he 
says,  were  of  irregular  shape,  oblong,  triangular,  or 
square,  with  three  stone  slabs  forming  three  sides,  the 
fourth  side  being  built  up  of  rubbish,  while  on  the  top 
was  always  a  covering  slab.  On  an  average  the  graves 
were  only  three  feet  long,  two  feet  wide,  and  seldom 


1  6  Hellenic  Journal,'  Y.  p.  47. 


8         HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ABCELEOLOGY.    [Chap.  H. 


more  than  two  feet  deep.  Most  of  them  contained 
bones  of  more  than  one  person.  In  one  small  grave 
were  two  skulls. 

Plutarch  (Marius  21)  says  that  after  one  of  the  great 
battles  of  Marius  the  Massiliotes  made  fences  of  bones 
round  their  vineyards,  and  that  the  bodies  in  the 
course  of  decay  enriched  the  soil,  the  decayed  matter 
being  carried  deep  into  the  earth  by  the  rains  of 
winter,  and  thus  producing  rich  crops.  Plutarch  refers 
to  this  as  illustrating  what  had  been  said  by  the  poet 
Archilochus,  who  was  a  native  of  Paros,  and  lived 
about  700  B.C.,  as  to  horrid  burials  of  this  kind.  The 
evidence  of  the  Iliad  goes  to  prove  the  burning  of 
bodies  in  the  case  of  illustrious  persons,  as  of  Hector 
(xxiv.  791),  and  of  Patroclos  (xxiii.  164).  Possibly 
the  same  is  to  be  understood  of  Sarpedon,  whose  body 
was  carried  off  to  Lycia  by  Sleep  and  Death  (xvi.  672) 
to  be  buried  in  a  tomb  with  a  stele.  Ordinary  mortals 
may  have  been  differently  buried.  The  contents  of 
the  tombs  in  Amorgos  and  Antiparos  were  chiefly 
earthenware,  but  there  were  also  some  small  and  very 
rude  representations  of  the  human  figure  cut  in  marble, 
as  in  Fig.  2,  several  small  articles  made  of  bronze, 
copper,  or  silver,  and  a  number  of  chips  of  obsidian, 
such  as  may  have  served  as  knives,  or,  at  all  events,  to 
incise  the  patterns  on  the  vases.  Mr.  Bent  observed  that 
a  hill  in  Antiparos  was  strewn  with  flakes  of  obsidian. 

In  one  tomb  was  a  marble  vase  of  precisely  the  same 
shape  as  No.  1,  PI.  I.,  but  without  decoration.  We  may 
assume  the  marble  to  have  been  obtained  in  the  neigh- 
bouring island  of  Paros.  Marble  vases  of  exactly  the 
same  form  have  been  found  in  Egypt,  and  these  also,  or 
at  least  the  material  of  them,  had  probably  been  im- 
ported from  Paros,  though  at  what  time  we  have  no 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


9 


means  of  knowing.  This  much  is  certain,  that  the 
marble  vase  from  Antiparos  could  not  have  been 
fashioned  with  obsidian  tools,  whence  it  is  to  be 
inferred  that,  though  obsidian  may  have  continued  in 
use  till  then,  yet  a  better  material,  such  as  copper, 
must  also  have  been  available  for  tools. 

Herodotus  (ii.  86),  describing  the  process  of  em- 
balming as  practised  in  Egypt,  ap- 
parently in  his  own  time,  says  that 
at  one  part  of  the  process  a  sharp 
knife,  of  what  may  be  identified  as 
obsidian  or  flint,  was  used,  \l0cp 
KWiOTTiicay  6%ei.  Elsewhere  he  speaks 
of  an  Ethiopian  contingent  in  the 
army  of  Xerxes,  which  had  arrows 
tipped  with  this  same  sharp  Ethiopian 
stone,  from  which  we  ought  perhaps 
to  conclude  in  favour  of  flint  rather 
than  obsidian.  At  all  events,  these 
passages  attest  the  use  of  sharp  stone 
tools  at  a  comparatively  late  time 
among  people  living  remote  from 
civilisation. 

There  is  in  Athens  a  small  marble 
figure  found  in  one  of  the  tombs  at 
Amorgos,  representing  a  person 
playing  on  the  lyre.  The  attempt  to 
sculpture  such  a  subject  implies  a  state  of  civilization 
no  small  measure  in  advance  of  the  general  contents  of 
these  tombs.  We  may  therefore  conclude  that  the 
contents  of  these  tombs  indicate  both  poverty  and 
primitiveness — a  poverty  in  which  primitive  ways  of 
vase-making  and  such-like  were  retained,  when  in 
more  favoured  districts  a  considerable  advance  had 


Small  marble  figure. 
From  Paros. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  5i  in. 


10       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  II 


Fis:.  3. 


been  achieved.  Small  marble  figures,  of  varying 
degrees  of  rudeness,  have  been  found  from  time  to 
time  in  the  Greek  islands,  and  have  constantly  been 
associated  with  primitive  civilization  (Fig.  2).  A 
number  of  specimens  are  exhibited  in  the  First  Vase 
Eoom  of  the  British  Museum.1 

We  have  seen  that  the  tombs  of  Amorgos  and 
Antiparos  produced  chiefly  earthen- 
ware, that  the  mode  of  decoration 
takes  the  form  of  incised  zigzag  lines, 
that  handles  exist  only  in  a  rudi- 
mentary stage,  if  at  all,  and  that  these 
several  characteristics  are  to  be  met 
with,  more  or  less,  in  the  primitive 
barrows  or  graves  in  Britain,  if  not, 
indeed,  in  primitive  sepulture  in  other 
countries  also.  At  this  point  it  may 
assist  us  to  take  note  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  this  primitive  class  of  earthen- 
ware so  far  as  it  is  indicated  by  the 
various  localities  in  which  the  vases  on  PI.  I.  have 
been  found.    Here,  then,  is  a  list  of  them  : — 

PI.  L,  No.  1.  Antiparos.  Coarse  reddish  ware;  incised 
patterns.  Height,  in. 
„  „  2.  Antiparos.  Coarse  reddish  ware ;  incised 
patterns.  Height,  h\  in. 
„  3.  Egypt.  Black  ware ;  punctured  lines. 
Height,  2 \  in.  This  vase  is  identical  in 
ware,  shape  and  decoration  with  other 
vases  in  the  British  Museum,  found  by 
M.  Navile  at  Katanah,  in  Egypt,  with 
flint  chips  and  with  scarabs  of  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  Dynasties. 


Aryballos;  incised 
ware.  Cyprus. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  4{-  in. 


1  See  also  <  Mittheilungen  d.  Inst.  Athen.,'  1891,  p.  46. 


PLATE  I. 


15.  16. 
Vases  of  the  Primitive  Period. 
All  in  Brit.  Mus.  except  Nos.  4,  9,  10. 

[To  face  p.  10. 


Chap.  II.] 


PEIMITIYE  PEEIOD. 


11 


PL  L,  No.  4.  HissarliJc    (Troy  ?).       Baised  patterns. 
Height,  2  ft.  2  in. 

„  ,,5.  Albano,  in  Italy.  Black  ware ;  in  shape  of 
hut  (tugurium).    Height,  9^  in. 

„  „  6.  Albano,  in  Italy.  Black  ware;  punctured 
lines.  Diameter,  5^  in.  Nos.  5  and  6 
were  found  with  a  number  of  other 
vases  of  black  ware,  now  in  the  British 
Museum,  under  a  stratum  of  peperino  at 
Albano.  The  conditions  under  which 
they  were  found,  together  with  the 
general  absence  of  handles,  and  the 
manner  of  decoration,  leave  no  doubt  of 
their  being  of  a  primitive  character. 

,,  „  7.  Camiros,  in  Rhodes.  Eeddish  ware ;  in- 
cised patterns.    Diameter,  7  in. 

,,       ,,    8.  Sesto  Calende,  Lago  Maggiore.   Black  ware  ; 

incised  patterns.  Height,  9f  in.  This 
vase  contains  ashes :  with  it  were  found 
other  pottery  of  the  same  kind  and 
bronze  fibulae  of  a  primitive  type.  Very 
possibly  primitive  industries  had  sur- 
vived in  this  district  centuries  after  they 
had  been  abandoned  in  Greece.  At  the 
opposite  extreme  of  Italy,  on  the  site  of 
the  Greek  colony  of  Sybaris,  a  necropolis 
(Torre  del  Mordillo)  has  been  excavated 
in  recent  years  (153  tombs  had  been 
opened,  it  is  stated  in  the  Keport  for 
September,  1888,  'Notizie  degli  Scavi- 
Academia  dei  Lincei,'  1888,  pp.  239, 
462  and  575,  plates  15  and  19).  The 
pottery  is  of  the  rude  bucchero  kind, 
and  the  objects  most  constantly  found 
are  bronze  fibulae.  Pigorini  believes 
this  necropolis  to  be  earlier  than  720  B.C., 
and  to  rank  in  a  measure  with  the 
first  period  of  the  antiquities  of  Suessala. 


12       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  II. 


PL  L,  No.    9.  Hissarlilc.    Height,  12J  in. 
„     „    10.       „  Height,  11  in. 

„     „    31.  Cyprus.   Brownish  ware ;  polished;  raised 

patterns.    Height,  4J  in. 
„     „   12.  Cyprus.   Brownish  ware ;  polished ;  raised 

patterns.    Height,  4  in. 
„     „    13.  Egypt.    Plain  black  ware.    Height,  2\  in. 

See  note  on  No.  3. 
„     „    14.  Cyprus.    Incised  patterns.    Height,  4^  in. 
„         15.       „  „  „  Length,  11  in. 

„     „    16.       „        Painted  patterns.  Height,  3f  in. 

In  PL  I.  we  have  gone  a  little  beyond  the  most 
primitive  stage  of  earthenware,  with  its  incised  zig- 

Fig.  4.  Fig.  5. 


Yase  with  patterns  in  white  on 
Brown  ware.    Cyprus.  brown  ground.  Cyprus. 

Brit.  Mus.  Brit.  Mus. 

Ht.  3i  in.  Ht.  4  in. 


zags,  and  have  anticipated  the  next  step,  when  the 
utility  of  handles  and  conveniently-shaped  mouths 
was  fully  recognised,  when  in  fact  the  handle,  mouth, 
and  neck  had  become,  important  factors.  We  see 
this  in  the  vases  from  Cyprus,  Nos.  11,  12,  14, 
and  Fig.  4.  We  see  also  that  contemporary  with 
this  the  fashion  of  incised  patterns  was,  partially 
at  least,  given  up,  patterns  in  relief  taking  their 
place  to  a  large  extent;  and  lastly,  in  Nos.  16 
and  Fig.  5  we  find  that  the  patterns  are  painted 


Chap.  II.] 


PEIMITIVE  PEEIOD. 


13 


on  the  vase  in  white  on  a  brown  ground.  But 
notwithstanding  these  few  variations  the  whole  of  the 
pottery  in  PL  I.  may  be  considered  to  be  primitive. 
As  to  actual  date,  there  is  no  suggestion  beyond  what 
may  be  extracted  from  the  circumstance,  noted  in 
connection  with  No.  3,  that  scarabs  of  the  12th  and 
13th  Egyptian  dynasties  were  found  with  precisely 
similar  vases.  That  would  mean  something  earlier  than 
2000  B.C.  It  is  true  that  the  presence  of  scarabs  of  a 
particular  dynasty  does  not  in  Egypt  always  imply 
contemporaneousness  in  the  objects  found  with  them ; 
but  in  this  case  the  finding  of  flint  implements  in  the 
same  tombs  speaks  for  the  high  antiquity  of  these 
vases.  Considering  the  great  antiquity  of  Egyptian 
civilization,  that  is  not  strange.  Nevertheless  a  date 
which  may  hold  good  in  Egypt  need  not  apply  to 
Greece  or  Italy.  On  the  contrary  the  variety  of 
localities  in  which  these  primitive  vases  have  been 
found  distributed  goes  to  prove  that  this  kind  of 
earthenware  has  been  independently  produced  by 
various  nations  in  the  earliest  stages  of  their  existence 
whensoever  in  the  world's  history  these  stages  may 
have  occurred. 

In  these  circumstances  the  only  safe  principle 
we  can  follow  as  regards  Greece  is  to  go  backward 
into  antiquity  by  steady,  authentic  stages,  until  we 
reach  a  period  where  systematic  evidence  fails.  At 
present  our  evidence  cannot  be  said  to  go  further 
back  than  700  B.C.  At  that  date,  as  will  be  seen 
later  on,  art  had  in  certain  respects  attained  a 
degree  of  skill  which  may  be  held  to  presuppose  a 
considerable  period  of  preliminary  training,  a  period 
in  which  the  primitive  vases  will  naturally  fall.  The 
danger  is  that  in  dealing  with  particular  sets  of  these 


14       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  II. 


vases  we  may  sometimes  overlook  the  circumstance 
that  this  primitive  method  of  vase  making  must 
have  been  kept  up  in  outlying  localities  long  after 
it  had  been  abandoned  in  places  favoured  by  the 
advance  of  civilization.  While  right  in  calling  them 
primitive  in  character,  we  may  be  wrong  in  assigning 
them  to  a  positively  primitive  date.  For  all  we  can 
say  to  the  contrary  this  may  be  true,  for  example,  of 
the  pottery  found  at  Hissarlik  by  Dr.  Schliemann. 

Among  the  primitive  vases  not  a  few  are  made  of  a 
black  or  dull  greyish  black,  of  which  we  may  select 
Fig.  1,  Nos.  3  and  13  as  examples.  Everything  points 
to  the  very  high  antiquity  of  this  ware.  On  the  other 
hand  we  can  certainly  trace  the  production  of  it  down 
to  historical  times  in  Greece.  For  instance,  we  have 
from  Camiros  in  Rhodes  a  plate  of  a  greyish  black 
colour,  on  the  foot  of  which  the  letters  KA  have  been 
incised  previous  to  the  firing  of  the  vase.  At  the 
most  the  forms  of  these  letters  cannot  be  proved 
to  go  beyond  the  end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  They 
resemble  the  writing  of  the  Greek  mercenaries  at 
Abu  Simbel  on  the  Nile,  of  whom  one  at  least  de- 
scribes himself  as  a  native  of  Ialysos,  a  neighbouring 
town  to  Camiros  in  Rhodes.  But  the  letters  on  our 
vase  may  in  fact  be  later  even  than  this  date. 

In  the  oldest  quarter  of  Camiros  were  found  other 
examples  of  black  ware  (Brit.  Mus.),  two  of  which  may 
be  mentioned  as  suggesting  a  relationship  to  the  latest 
stage  of  our  primitive  period  of  pottery.  The  one  is 
formed  of  two  upright  tubes,  united  at  the  base  and 
connected  at  the  top  by  a  handle.  The  other  is  in 
the  form  of  a  flat  box  or  pyxis,  on  the  sides  of  which 
are  four  horizontal  handles  alternately  with  four 
female  heads  modelled  in  relief.    These  heads  are  of 


Chap.  II.] 


PEIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


15 


a  distinctly  archaic  type,  but  not  so  much  so  as  to 
suggest  any  material  difference  of  date  between  them 
and  other  works  which  we  have  no  difficulty  in 
placing  about  600  B.C.,  while  on  the  lid  of  the  box 
and  round  the  bottom  are  incised  wavy  lines  which 
again  recall  the  primitive  manner  of  decoration. 

Let  us  take  another  case.  From  an  Etruscan  tomb  at 
Vulci,  known  as  the  Polledrara  tomb,  or  G-rotta  of  Isis, 
the  contents  of  which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum, 
we  have  a  large  vase  of  the  same  brownish-red  ware 
which  we  see  in  Nos.  11-12.  On  it  are  painted  a 
series  of  designs  from  G-reek  legend,  e.g.,  Theseus  and 
the  Minotaur.  But  these  designs  have  only  been 
partially  fired  on  the  vase,  and  for  the  rest  are 
painted  on  in  colour  which  was  left  to  last  as  well  as 
it  might.  That  circumstance  taken  by  itself  would 
be  evidence  that  the  art  of  painting  designs  with  a 
glaze  which  could  be  fired  with  the  vase  was  as 
yet  unknown.  Yet  in  the  same  tomb  was  found 
another  vase,  which  offered  various  significant  points 
of  comparison  with  the  archaic,  not  primitive,  pottery 
from  the  Greek  town  of  Naucratis  in  the  Delta  of 
Egypt.  We  know  that  many  Greeks  settled  in  the 
Delta  under  the  Egyptian  king  Psammetichos  I.,  and 
we  find  in  the  Etruscan  tomb  in  question  a  porcelain 
scarab  with  the  name  of  that  king,  who  died  611  B.C. 
That  tomb  cannot  be  older  than  Psammetichos  I., 
though  no  doubt  it  may  go  well  back  into  his  long 
reign.  We  have  thus  evidence  that  the  brownish- 
black  ware  continued  to  be  produced  down  to  about 
the  end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  though,  of  course,  no 
one  can  tell  how  long  before  then  it  may  have  been 
a  regular  product  of  Greek  potters. 

As  regards  the  black  ware  of  Etruria,  bucchero  nero 


16       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  II. 

as  it  is  called,  there  is  every  proof,  from  the  shape  of 
the  tombs  in  which  it  is  found,  that  it  also  went  back 
to  a  primitive  age.  Nos.  5  and  6  (PL  1),  representing  a 
fairly  large  class,  speak  for  themselves  as  the  work  of 
a  primitive  people.  No.  8  may  serve  as  an  example  of 
a  slightly  more  advanced  ware,  of  which  there  are 
many  specimens  much  more  elaborately  enriched 
with  incised  decoration.  The  Etruscans  have  left  no 
satisfactory  guidance  as  to  dates.  Tradition  says 
that  certain  Corinthian  potters  migrated  to  Etruria 
early  in  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  We  can  imagine  that 
the  Etruscans  had  not  then  advanced  beyond  the 
black-ware  stage,  and  that  one  reason  for  receiving 
the  immigrants  so  cordially  may  have  been  an 
anticipation  of  profit  from  their  new  skill.  In  this 
instance  again  it  will  be  safe  to  assume  that  the 
Etruscan  bucchero  ware  was  produced  down  to  the 
7th  cent.  B.C. 

But  observe  that,  however  many  instances  may 
attest  the  production  of  primitive  pottery  as  we  see 
it  on  PL  I.,  down  to  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  or  even 
later,  that  circumstance  by  no  means  proves  a 
negative  as  to  its  existence  centuries  before  then  in 
Greece.  Our  duty  at  present  is  only  to  establish  the 
latest  possible  elate.  We  proceed  now  to  a  more 
advanced  stage  of  prirnitiveness,  as  represented  on 
Pis.  II.  and  III.  The  following  list  will  indicate  the 
distribution  of  the  pottery  in  PL  II. 

Height,  1  ft.  in. 
lOJ  in. 
„      6i  in. 

1  ft.  9  in. 
„      5 \  in. 
10|  in. 


PL  II.,  No.  1.  Iahjsos. 
2 

5)  55       ~"  »' 

o 

55  55       °#  >5 

4 

5  5  5T  5  5 

55  55       9«  55 

„  55  6. 


PLATE  II. 


14.  15.  16. 

Vases  of  the  Mycekss  Type. 
In  Brit.  Mus.  except  Nos.  9,  10,  11, 13, 15,  1G. 

[To  face  p.  16. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


17 


PL  II.,  No.  7.  lahjsos.    Height,  10^  in. 

,,        „    8.  Bin  Tepe,  Sardes.    Height,  5^  in. 

„    9.  Mycense.     Height,  1  ft.    2   in.  (Myk. 

Thongefasse,  PI.  11,  No.  56). 
„        „  10.  Mycenee.     Height,  11  in.  (Myk.  Vasen, 

PL  38,  No.  393). 
„         ,,11.   Santorin.      Height,    6    in.  (Dnniont, 

Ceram.,  PL  2,  No.  14). 
„        .,  12.  Crete.    Height,  4^  in. 
.,  13.   Santorin.     Height,    8£    in.  (Dumont, 

Ceram.,  PL  1,  No.  3). 
,,        ,,14.  Carpathos.    Height,  5^  in. 
„        .,  15.    Santorin    (Dumont,    Ceram.,    PL  21 

No.  32). 

„  16.  Mycense.  Height,  12\  in.  (Myk.  Thonge- 
fasse, PL  9,  No.  44). 

Here  we  recognise  an  enormous  step  in  advance 
from  a  technical,  as  well  as  an  artistic  point  of  view, 
Except  in  the  ruder  specimens  the  vase  is  now  covered 
with  a  creamy  slip.  On  this  slip  the  patterns  are 
painted.  The  colour  of  the  design  is  black,  but  the 
effect  varies,  according  as  the  brush  was  well  or 
slightly  charged,  from  black  to  a  shade  of  red.  The 
whole  vase  is  finally  covered  with  a  transparent  glaze, 
which  gives  it  a  warm  tone.  That  was  a  brilliant 
invention,  and  when  we  here  come  upon  it  for  the  first 
time,  we  are  bound  to  stop  and  consider  it.  An 
obvious  suggestion  is  that  the  first  application  of  a 
glaze  and  of  colour  that  could  stand  firing  had  been 
learnt  from  the  early  workers  in  glass  and  porcelain. 

The  high  antiquity  of  work  in  glass  and  porce- 
lain in  Egypt  is  beyond  dispute.  In  the  British 
Museum  is  a  porcelain  vase  bearing  the  name  of 
Thothmes  III.  It  is  argued  also  that  the  Phoe- 
nicians were  early  distinguished  in  the  production 

c 


18     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


of  glass.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  deny  the  very  obvious 
imitation  of  glass  bottles  which  we  see  in  certain 
earthenware  vases  from  Melos  (Brit.  Mus.)  which  repre- 
sent a  stand  with  a  number  of  bottles  in  it,  much 
as  in  a  modern  cruet-stand.  The  shape  and  the 
patterns  are  identical  with  the  most  constant  shape 
and  patterns  among  the  alabasti  or  bottles  of  varie- 
gated glass,  the  patterns  being  simply  a  set  of  zigzags, 
or  wavy  lines  placed  horizontally  on  the  vase.  On 
the  glass  alabasti  these  patterns  have  been  produced 
by  first  twining  a  coloured  thread  of 
Fl£;  6-  glass  round  the  body  of  the  vase  when 

in  a  fused  state  and  then  with  a  hook 
pulling  these  threads  downwards  at 
regular  intervals.  By  that  very 
simple  mechanical  process  a  result  of 
admirable  beauty  is  very  frequently 
attained,  especially  when  in  pulling 
Tr      /        .  i     down  the  threads  a  pressure  was 

Vase  or  variegated  #  1 

glass.  From        employed  which  produced  a  ribbed 
Brit^Mus.         appearance  on  the  vase.   Across  these 
ribs  the  variously  coloured  threads  of 
glass  sweep  with  the  delicacy  and  beauty  of  natural 
forms,  far  beyond  the  reach  of  even  a  very  advanced 
artistic  skill. 

A  comparison  of  the  glass  vase  (Fig.  6)  with  the 
earthenware  vase  in  PL  II.  No.  8,  will  farther  illus- 
trate the  point.  It  is  interesting  also  to  note  the 
different  localities  where  these  two  vases  were  found. 
The  glass  vase  was  obtained  from  a  tomb  at  Ialysos, 
in  Rhodes,  and  is  therefore  of  the  Mycenae  period ; 
the  earthenware  vase  is  from  one  of  the  ancient  Lydian 
tumuli  of  Bin  Tepe,  near  Sardes,  where  it  was  found 
in  1882  with  other  vases  of  a  similar  fabric.  These 


Chap.  II.] 


PEIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


19 


tumuli  near  Sardes  certainly  belong  to  the  time  of  the 
old  Lydian  kings,  and  the  vases  in  question  may  fairly 
be  considered  as  going  back  to  the  times  of  Alyattes, 
whose  tumulus  Herodotus  (I.  93)  describes,  or  of 
Gyges,  or  even  an  earlier  date.  The  tombs  of  Alyattes 
and  Glyges  were  famous  landmarks  in  the  district  at 
the  time  of  the  poet  Hipponax. 

The  famous  ring  of  Glyges,  which  made  him  in- 
visible or  not  as  he  pleased  to  turn  it,  had  been  found 
by  an  ancestor  of  his,  whose  tomb  may  also  have  been 
among  the  Bin  Tepe,  or  "  thousand  hills,"  near  Sardes. 
And  on  reasonable  grounds  we  may  allow  the  Lydian 
vase  (PL  II.  No.  8)  to  be  even  older  than  Gyges,  about 
700  B.C.,  though  equally  it  is  open  to  us  to  regard  it 
as  belonging  to  the  century  after  him.  In  this 
connection  we  may  notice  a  series  of  vases  with 
precisely  the  same  manner  of  glass-like  decoration 
found  in  primitive  tombs  in  the  Nilgiri  hills  of 
Southern  India,  the  patterns  being  painted  just  as 
on  Lydian  vases,  and  the  absence  of  handles  being 
equally  conspicuous.  In  the  ruins  of  Makran,  the 
ancient  Gedrosia,  a  quantity  of  pottery  has  been  found 
which  in  shape  and  decoration  may  be  classed  as 
rude  congeners  of  the  Ialysos  and  Cyprus  pottery. 
What  their  date  may  have  been  it  is  impossible  to 
say — the  finding  of  a  late  Parthian  coin  in  the  ruins 
is  plainly  no  evidence  for  the  pottery.  See  Major 
Mockler  in  the  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society, 
Jan.  1877. 

Few  things  in  archaeology  are  more  striking  than  the 
resemblance  between  this  Lydian  and  Indian  pottery. 
The  Indian  specimens  bear  with  them  no  direct 
evidence  as  to  date.  It  is  clear  that  they  have 
nothing  in  common  with  those  other  Indian  remains 

c  2 


20     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 

ill  which  the  influence  of  Greek  art,  after  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  is  obvious  enough.  Whether 
in  regard  to  this  pottery  it  was  Greece  that  influenced 
India,  or  India  Greece,  the  result  must  have  been 
attained   centuries   before   the  time  of  Alexander. 


Fig.  7. 


View  of  tombs  at  Mycenae. 


Without,  however,  concluding  that  the  Lydian  and 
the  Indian  pottery  were  absolutely  contemporaneous,  it 
may  be  sufficient  to  regard  them  as  the  products  of 
a  particular  stage  of  civilization  which  may  have 
ripened  in  the  one  country  independently  of  the 
other,  and  at  quite  different  dates,  though  always,  as 


Chap.  II.] 


PEIMITIVE  PEEIOD. 


21 


we  believe,  from  the  same  germ  of  an  intentional 
imitation  of  primitive  designs  on  glass. 

We  return  now  to  the  vase  made  of  variegated  glass 
(Fig.  6)  which  was  found,  as  we  have  said,  in  a  tomb  at 
Ialysos,  in  the  island  of  Ehodes,  along  with  a  quantity 
of  pottery  which  has  been  the  occasion  of  much  study 
and  investigation  (see  PL  II.  Nos.  1-7).  This  pottery 
had  been  in  the  British  Museum  for  several  years,  and 
had  attracted  little  or  no  attention  till  the  discoveries 
of  Dr.  Schliemann  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  the 
pottery  abounding  in  the  tombs 
of  Mycenae  was    identical    in  Fig.  8. 

all  respects  with  the  pottery 
abounding  in  the  tombs  at 
Ialysos.  The  same  result  was 
obtained  from  tombs  at  Spata 
and  Menidi  in  Attica,  at  Nauplia 
and  elsewhere.  Since  then  it 
has  been  proved  that  vases  of 
the  same  kind  have  been  found 
in   Crete,  in    Caria,  Calymna, 

J  Glass  ornaments.  From 

Cyprus,  Egypt,  and  elsewhere.       Ialysos.  Brit.  Mus. 
So  that  we  have  evidently  before 

us  in  PI.  II.  a  fashion  of  pottery  that  was  widely 
spread  in  antiquity.  It  was  accompanied  by  one 
or  two  vases  such  as  Fig.  6,  and  many  ornaments 
of  blue  glass  made  from  moulds  (Figs.  8,  13).  Helbig 
(Homerisch.  Epos,  2nd  Ed.  p.  100  fob)  has  argued, 
with  much  probability,  that  this  blue  glass  was  no 
other  than  the  Homeric  tcvavos,  employed  in  the 
decoration  of  interior  walls  of  houses  along  with 
bronze.  A  tomb  at  Thebes  of  the  time  of  Thoth- 
mes  III.  has  pictures  of  Phoenicians  bringing  tribute 
of  blue  vases.    That  these  vases  were  made  of  kvclvos 


22      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


is  confirmed  by  a  passage  of  Theophrastus,  which  tells 
of  the  Phoenicians  bringing  tribute  of  kvclvos  to  the 
Egyptians.  But  here  again  we  encounter  the  standing 
difficulty  that,  allowing  these  glass  objects  from  My- 
cenae and  Ialysos  to  have  been  made  by  Phoenicians, 
we  are  still  not  obliged  to  go  farther  back  for  the 
date  of  these  products  than  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  They 
may  be  much  earlier,  yet  it  is  a  fact  that  the  sphinx  on 
one  of  the  glass  ornaments  from  Ialysos  (Brit.  Mus.) 
answers  very  well  in  form  to  the  sphinxes  on  painted 
vases  of  the  end  of  the  7th  cent.   So  also  the  vase 

(Fig.  6)  does  not  differ 
Fig.  9.  essentially    from  many 

others  found  at  Camiros, 
in  tombs  which  belonged 
even  to  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 
The  production  of  such 
things  may  have  gone  on 
Gold  ornaments.  Mycen*.        unchanged  for  centuries 

among  the  Phoenicians. 
It  has  been  customary  to  assign  the  class  of  pottery 
on  PI.  II.  to  what  is  called — using  the  word  in  its 
strict  sense  of  a  period  of  a  thousand  years — the 
second  millennium  B.C. ;  according  to  some  the  14th 
cent.  B.C.,  is  the  latest  possible  date.  Others  are 
content  with  the  limit  of  the  Dorian  conquest,  about 
1100  B.C.  It  is  confessed  that  the  civilization  apparent 
in  these  vases,  and  the  other  antiquities  found  with 
them,  such  as  engraved  gems,  sculpture  in  stone  and 
ivory,  the  glass  ornaments  already  noticed,  and  much 
else,  was  clearly  far  in  advance  of  the  state  of  things 
in  Homer's  time.  Homer  knew  nothing,  for  example, 
of  the  way  to  build  massive  walls  or  vaulted  tombs, 
he  had  apparently  never  heard  of  an  engraved  gem  or 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


23 


of  sculpture  in  marble,  and,  though  he  was  acquainted 
with  the  movement  of  the  potter's  wheel,  it  is  not  to 
be  gathered  from  that  fact  that  painted  vases  existed 
in  his  time  and  to  his  knowledge.  If  then  the  pottery 
of  Mycenae  and  Ialysos  is  to  be  declared  older  than 
Homer,  some  extraordinary  event  must  have  occurred 
between  its  date  and  his  date  to  account  for  the  sweep- 
ing away  of  that  older  civilization.  That  event  is 
found  in  the  Dorian  Conquest. 

A  theory  of  Pre-Dorian  civilization  must  rely 
mainly  on  the  possibility  of  proving  some  relation 
between  antiquities  of  the  Mycenee  class  with  the 
antiquities  of  other  nations  older  than  Greece. 
Several  comparisons  have  been  made  with  Egypt.1 
But  even  if  these  comparisons  had  been  more  effective 
than  they  are,  the  fact  would  still  remain  that  Egypt 
was  for  centuries  an  unchanging  country,  and  that  the 
Greeks  the  first  time  they  entered  it,  whether  in  the 
14th  or  7th  cent.  B.C.,  would  see  very  much  the  same 
things  to  admire  and  to  imitate.  One  thing  there  is, 
however,  which  they  would  not  have  seen,  and  that  is 
finely  painted  pottery.  The  ancient  Egyptians  were 
not  skilled  in  that  art.  Nor  indeed  were  the  Assyrians, 
fond  as  they  otherwise  were  of  working  in  clay. 
Neither  the  Egyptians  nor  the  Assyrians  were  a 
trading  people  who  might  be  conceived  as  offering 
their  wares  for  sale  in  Greece.  So  far  as  they  are 
concerned,  any  influence  which  Greece  may  have 

1  Furtwaengler  and  Loeschcke,  '  Myken.  Vasen,'  rely  on  com- 
parisons with  Egypt.  Dlimmler  and  Studniczka,  in  the  'Mit- 
theilungen  aus  Athen,'  xii.,  p.  1,  also  maintain  the  Pre-Dorian  view, 
but  on  different  grounds.  They  argue  that  the  Mycenae  vases 
follow  immediately  after  those  of  the  Cyclades  and  others  on  our 
PI.  I. 


24     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


derived  from  them  must  have  been  obtained  by  the 
Greeks  themselves  when  they  began  to  trade  with  the 
East.  We  must  never  forget  that  for  a  long  period 
previous  to  660  B.C.  Egypt  had  been  sinking  into 
deeper  and  deeper  degradation.  At  that  date  the 
yoke  of  the  Assyrians  was  thrown  off.  But  it  was  to 
the  bravery  alone  of  the  Greek  mercenaries  from  Asia 
Minor  that  this  splendid  result  was  clue.  No  wonder 
that  Psammetichos  I.  did  not  conceal  his  indebtedness 
to  them.  From  that  time  onward  the  Greeks  were 
favoured  in  the  highest  degree.  We  may  be  sure  that 
they  made  a  good  use  of  their  opportunities. 


Fig.  10.  Fig.  11.  Fig.  12. 


Gold  cups.  Mycenx. 


On  the  other  hand  there  is  the  undoubted  fact  that 
the  Phoenicians  had  acted  as  intermediaries  between 
Egypt  and  Greece.  We  have  the  evidence  of 
Homer  for  his  own  time,  and  we  have  the  striking 
incident  with  which  Herodotus  opens  his  history 
on  the  authority  of  Persian  traditions.  He  tells 
how  a  ship  with  Phoenician  traders  landed  at 
Argos,  how  the  women  of  the  neighbourhood  went 
to  the  ship  to  buy  pretty  things,  and  how  the 
Phoenicians  made  off  with  some  of  the  women,  in- 
cluding the  legendary  Io,  daughter  of  King  Inachos. 
So  far  as  Homer  is  concerned,  the  articles  of  Phoenician 
product  were  of  costly  metal,  or  otherwise  precious. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


25 


Apparently  Herodotus  also  had  the  same  class  of 
things  in  his  mind.  In  ordinary  circumstances  and 
in  their  general  trade,  we  can  imagine  the  Phoenicians 
bringing  to  Greece  quantities  of  pottery  of  little 
intrinsic  value.  Indeed  the  finding  of  so  much 
pottery  in  the  graves  at  Mycenae,  along  with  objects 
of  gold  (Figs.  10-12),  bronze,  ivory  and  glass,  would 
show  that  they  did  trade  in  it  if  the  Phoenician  theory 
is  accepted. 

There  is  much  that  points  to  the  Phoenicians  as 
traders  with  the  Greeks  in  early  times.  It  is  a  con- 
spicuous fact.  The  difficulty  is,  as  we  have  said,  in 
determining  the  period  over  which  that  trade  extended. 
The  testimony  of  Homer  can  only  apply  to  Post- 
Dorian  times.  It  cannot  serve  the  theory  of  a  Pre- 
Dorian  civilization  which  we  are  now  discussing.  In 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  perhaps  later,  there  is  abundant 
proof  of  Phoenician  trade  in  richly  decorated  metal 
vases.  This  evidence  is  constantly  increasing,  but 
always,  so  far  as  we  have  observed,  with  a  tendency 
towards  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  or  the  end  of  the  8th  cent., 
at  the  earliest.  The  question  is  not  how  early  were 
the  Phoenicians  traders  in  metal  vases,  and  such  like, 
but  how  early  did  their  trade  with  Greece  begin  ? 

A  more  pressing  question,  however,  is  this  :  Does 
the  pottery  of  Mycenae  and  Ialysos  bear  evidence  of 
Phoenician  origin,  or  of  a  predominating  Phoenician 
influence  ?  With  the  facts  at  present  known,  we  can 
imagine  no  answer  but  in  the  negative.  The  designs 
painted  on  the  vases  are  wholly  unlike  the  Phoenician 
designs.  It  is  significant  that  there  are  no  Phoenician 
inscriptions  on  the  pottery,  and  that,  indeed,  vases  of 
the  Mycenae  type  are  singularly  rare  in  Cyprus,  where 
one  would  have  expected  them  to  abound.    We  must 


26     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IT. 


Fig.  13. 


therefore  examine  these  vases  more  closely  in  regard 
to  such  technical  matters  as  shape  and  decoration,  to 
see  what  points  of  relationship  they  may  reveal  with 
the  rest  of  Greek  pottery.  Apart  from  these  vases,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  history  of  Greek  pottery  presents 
a  continuous  stream,  from  the  primitive  incised  zig- 
zags on  PI.  I.,  to  the  painted  maeanders 
and  other  geometric  patterns  on  PL  III., 
and  Fig.  21,  and  thence  onward  to  a  style 
of  decoration  in  which  animals  and  human 
beings  occupy  the  chief  place,  the  inter- 
vening blank  on  the  vase  being  broken 
up  first  by  bits  of  the  older  geometric 
patterns,  and  secondly  by  rosettes.  We 
have  first  to  determine  how  far  any  of  the 
elements  of  decoration  characteristic  of 
these  successive  styles,  occur  on  the 
Mycenae  and  Ialysos  pottery. 

We  have  rosettes  on  PI.  II.  Nos.  10, 
12,  14,  and  on  some  few  other  examples. 
We  have  spirals  and  wave  patterns  on 
PI.  II.  Nos.  2,  5,  9,  concentric  circles  on 
No.  7,  zigzags  on  No.  1.  The  vase 
PI.  II.  No.  7  is  a  type  which  survived  in 
Cyprus  to  comparatively  recent  times. 
We  have  thus  a  certain  degree  of  relation- 
ship between  these  vases  on  PI.  II.  and  others  which 
have  followed  the  regular  order  of  development.  As 
regards  the  rosette  pattern  which  abounds  in  the 
early  Ehodian  and  Corinthian  pottery,  and  continued 
in  use  down  to  the  6th  cent.  B.C.,  it  occurs  rarely  on 
the  Ialysos  and  Mycenae  vases.  On  the  other  hand 
a  considerable  number  of  actual  rosettes  made  of  a 
blue  glass  paste  and  impressed  from  moulds,  were 


Rosettes  of 
opaque  glass 
(kuanos). 

Ialysos. 
Brit.  Mus. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


27 


found  along  with  the  vases  at  Ialysos  and  Mycenae 
(Fig.  13).  These  glass  rosettes  are  pierced  so  as  to 
have  been  stitched  on  to  dresses,  probably  to  form 
borders,  much  as  we  see  so  frequently  in  the  costumes 
on  Assyrian  sculpture  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  still 
more  so  on  Persian  sculpture.  It  will  appear  later  on 
that  the  vase  painters  of  the  early  part  of  the  6th  and 
end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  drew  their  designs  largely 
from  Oriental  embroideries.     In  the  meantime  our 


Fig.  14.  Fig.  15. 


Kylix  :  cuttle-fish.    Ialysos.         Vase  with  aquatic  design.  Calymna. 
Brit.  Mus.  Brit.  Mus. 

Ht.  8  in.  Dia.  11  in. 


argument  merely  suggests  that  the  rarity  of  the  rosette 
on  the  Ialysos  vases,  together  with  its  frequency  in 
glass,  may  indicate  the  beginning  of  that  period  of 
vase  decoration  in  which  the  rosette  was  all-prevalent. 
The  spiral  ornaments  are  in  keeping  with  vases  of  the 
geometric  style  which  again  lasted  down  to  the  7th 
cent.  B.C.,  however  early  it  may  have  begun. 

If  now  we  consider  what  it  is  that  renders  the 
Ialysos  type  of  vases  so  abnormal,  we  shall  find  it  to 
consist  in  the  extraordinary  freedom  with  which  the 


28      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II- 

designs  are  drawn  (see  PL  II.  Nos.  4,  11,  12),  in 
the  frequent  choice  of  marine  creatures  such  as  the 
cuttle-fish  (Fig.  14),  the  nautilus,  the  shell  murex, 
(PL  II.  No.  3),  and  more  rarely  the  dolphin  (PL  II. 
No.  12)  ;  add  to  this  the  singularity  of  shape.  The 
cuttle-fish  and  murex  are  drawn  under  observation  of 
nature— that  may  be  allowed,  but  if  the  forms  of  them 
be  examined,  it  will  be  seen  how  easily  they  may  be 
produced  by  a  continuous  line,  whence  it  may  be  in- 
ferred that  the  original  inspiration  of  these  forms  was 
not  observation  of  nature,  but  the  observation  of  an 


FiS-  16.  Fig.  17.  Fig.  18. 


Brit.  Mus.  Pseudampliora.  Pseudampbora. 

Dia.  lOf  in.  Ialysos.   Brit.  Mus.     Icily sos.  Brit.  Mas. 

Ht.  5J  in.  Ht.  10£  in. 


analogy  which  presented  itself  between  certain 
purely  decorative  patterns  and  certain  natural  objects. 
Strangely  enough  the  skill  with  which  aquatic  animals 
and  plants  are  rendered  entirely  fails  the  painter 
when  he  tries  to  represent  a  quadruped.  And  this  is 
all  the  more  remarkable  when  we  see  the  admirable 
talent  with  which  a  contemporary  gem-engraver  could 
engrave  a  bull  as  in  Pig.  39.  We  are  tempted  to 
regard  the  peculiar  shapes  of  this  pottery  and  the  limit- 
ation of  the  designs  to  aquatic  subjects  as  signs  of 
a  local  fabric  with  these  special  tastes  rather  than  as 
indications  of  a  special  period.     To  illustrate  the 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


29 


question  of  shape,  we  may  take  Figs.  17-18.  The 
shape  may  be  described  as  a  small  amphora  with  a 
spout,  but  the  mouth  of  the  amphora  has  been  closed 
hermetically  by  the  potter.  It  is  thus  a  pseudamphora, 
if  we  may  coin  that  word.  On  PI.  II.  No.  4  and  not  a 
few  others  of  these  vases  it  will  be  noticed  that  the 
handles  are  comparatively  small,  and  for  this  reason  the 
vases  may  be  said  to  approach  the  primitive  stage  when 
handles  were  only  rudimentary,  rather  than  the  stage 
of  regular  geometric  decoration  when  the  vases  with 
their  large  useful  handles  (Fig.  21),  have  already 
assumed  the  shapes  that  were  to  be  permanently 
characteristic  of  Greek  pottery. 

Fig.  14  is  a  kylix,  and  would  not  differ  much  from  the 
ordinary  kylix  of  later  times  but  for  its  tall  foot.  The 
poet  Simonides  (Bergk,  p.  509),  speaks  of  an  Argive 
kylix,  calling  it  ^o^r^Xo?,1  which  is  explained  as 
meaning  "  tapering,"  and  as  it  is  impossible  for  a  kylix 
to  taper  upwards,  we  must  take  the  expression  to 
apply  to  a  vase  like  this,  which  tapers  downwards. 
We  may  therefore  describe  this  shape  of  kylix  as 
"  Argive,"  especially  when  we  remember  that  vases  of 
this  class,  though  found  in  other  places,  have  yet  been 
discovered  principally  in  the  district  of  Argos  itself, 
as  at  Mycenae,  and  in  the  Argive  colony  of  Ialysos  in 
Rhodes.  But  before  extending  the  name  of  "  Argive  " 
to  this  whole  class  of  pottery  we  have  to  consider  that 
the  distribution  of  it  is  daily  being  proved  to  have 

1  avTrj  be  cjx)£lx€i\os  'Apyeu;  kv\i£,  explained  by  the  Scholiast, 
Iliad,  ii.  219,  as  employed  to  describe  the  head  of  Thersites. 
Herodotus,  iv.  152,  speaking  of  a  bronze  vase  which  the  Samians 
set  up  in  their  temple  of  Hera  about  630  B.C.,  says  that  it  was  in 
the  shape  of  an  Argolic  crater,  which  from  his  description  seems  to 
have  been  a  lebes,  a  shape  of  vase  for  which  Argos  was  also  famed. 
See  Athenaeus,  i.  27  d. 


30     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II, 


been  more  and  more  wide  in  the  ancient  Greek  world, 
and  that  the  distant  places  at  which  this  pottery  is 
being  found  are  very  suggestive  of  the  early  age  of 
colonization.  We  might  call  this  ware  "  Colonial  "  in 
a  sense.1 

Before  leaving  the  vases 
of  this  class,  it  is  important 
to  notice  the  very  remark- 
able manner  in  which  the 
painters  have  cast  aside  some 
of  the  most  constant  tradi- 
tions in  early  pottery.  They 
no  longer  recognise  the  duty 
of  covering  the  whole  vase, 
or  at  least  the  upper  part  of 
it,  with  a  close  network  of 
pattern.  They  have  none  of 
the  ancient  horror  of  vacant 
spaces.  More  than  that,  they 
go  so  far  as  to  constitute  a 
front  and  a  back  to  their 
vases.  Their  designs  aim 
at  effect,  They  are  in  no  way  trammelled  by  the 
shape  of  the  vase.  Surely  that  is  a  very  abnormal 
circumstance. 

Among  the  articles  found  with  this  "Colonial" 

1  Furtwaengler  and  Loeschcke,  '  Myken.  Vasen,'  p.  ix,  who 
argue  for  a  Pre-Dorian  date,  believe  that  these  vases  were  as  a 
class  all  produced  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mycense,  somewhere  on 
the  coast  of  Argolis.  Mr.  Flinders  Petrie  calls  this  pottery  iEgean ; 
see  his  very  interesting  article,  with  illustrations,  in  the  Hellenic 
Journal,  XL  p.  271,  PI.  14.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  fragment 
which  he  gives  under  Fig.  8,  PI.  14,  has  a  border  of  discs  sur- 
rounded by  white  dots — aj  pattern  common  in  the  black  figure 
vases,  6th  cent.  b.c. 


Fig.  19. 


Ivory  statuette.  From 
Idly 808.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  21  in. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


31 


pottery,  apart  from  the  objects  in  glass  already  cited, 
we  give  here  several  bronze  swords  as  to  which  it  is 
not  possible  to  ascertain  any  exact  date,  a  small  ivory 
statuette   (Fig.  19), 


)? 


resembling  in  style 
the  marble  statues 
from  Branchidse  which 
from  their  inscriptions 
are  dated  somewhere 
after  600  B.C.,  and  a 
series  of  vases  and 
ornaments  in  gold  and 
other  materials  (Figs. 
10-12)  from  Mycenae, 
in  which  are  combined 
the  freedom  of  design 
already  observed 
among  these  antiqui- 
ties and  a  certain  ad- 
herence to  primitive 
forms  of  ornament. 
We  omit  for  the  mo- 
ment the  engraved 
gems  which  generally 
accompany  these  an- 
tiquities, because  they 
will  presently  be  con- 
sidered by  themselves. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  we  have  here  to  deal  with  a 
state  of  civilization  in  which  the  art  was  of  an  in- 
dustrial character  and  more  liable  to  variation  of 
quality,  than  when  it  is  passing  through  a  regular 
course  of  development,  as  on  the  vases  with  geometric 
patterns  and  their  immediate  descendants. 


V 

Bronze  knife,  two  spear-heads  and 
sword.    From  Ialysos.    Brit.  Mus. 


32      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


We  pass  now  to  the  pottery  with  maeanders  and 
other  geometric  patterns,  as  illustrated  on  PL  III.  and 
in  Figs.  21-24  in  the  text. 

PL  III.,  No.  1.  Corfu.    Height,  llf  in.  (Brit.  Mus.) 
„  2.  Athens.  llf  in.  Now  in  Athens 

„    3.      „  „       3  ft.  10  in.    „  „ 

„        „   4.  Camiros.  1 in.  (Brit.  Mus.) 

,.         ..5.  Thebes  in  Boeotia.    Height,  8  J-  in.  (Brit. 
Mus.) 

„        ,,    6.  .,         Diameter,  1  ft.  (Brit. 

Mus.) 

„         .,    7.  Caere  in  Etruria.    Height,  1  ft.  2  in. 

Now  in  Etruscan  Museum  on  the 
Capitol,  Borne.  See  '  Mon.  dell'  Inst.,' 
ix.,  PL  4;  'Annali,'  1869,  p.  157; 
Wilamowitz-Moellendorf  in  'Hermes,' 
xxii.,  p.  118.  Since  then  Professor 
Kamsay,  in  the  Hellenic  Journal 
(X.  p.  187),  adopts  the  reading  Aris- 
tonofos  for  the  artist's  name.  We 
use  the  letter  "f"  here  for  the  Greek 
digamma. 

What  strikes  us  most  in  those  vases  is  the  preva- 
lence of  the  maeander,  or  key  pattern,  which  as  yet  we 
have  not  encountered  on  any  piece  of  pottery  (Nos. 
1,  2,  3,  4).  So  far  as  can  be  made  out,  the  mseander  is  a 
purely  Greek  invention.  By  whatever  process  it  may 
have  been  evolved,  nothing  is  more  significant  of 
Greek  taste,  even  in  those  early  times,  than  the 
readiness  with  which  the  inlander  was  seized  upon 
and  utilized  on  all  possible  occasions.  This  much 
may  be  conjectured,  that  it  was  a  pattern  evolved  in 
the  technical  process  of  weaving  or  embroidery.  The 
threads  may  be  seen  on  such   vases  as   Fig.  21. 


PLATE  III. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


33 


Fig.  21. 


But  most  of  all,  the  maeander  possesses  the  quality  of 
being  effective  in  whatever  position  it  may  be  placed. 
It  is,  so  to  speak,  reversible,  and  is  seen  to  equal 
advantage,  whether  it  is  placed  horizontally,  verti- 
cally, or  in  any  of  the 
varying  positions  which 
a  loose  garment  as- 
sumes. It  is  in  fact 
misapplied  when 
painted  on  a  vase  or 
employed  in  architec- 
ture, because  then  it 
only  displays  half  its 
qualities.  This  alone 
would  be  an  argument 
as  to  its  having  been 
borrowed  from  another 
industry,  such  as  weav- 
ing. Exactly  the  same 
is  true  of  an  equally 
characteristic  Greek 
pattern  which  occurs 
frequently  on  these 
geometric  vases,  the 
wave  pattern  (kv/jlcl). 
We  have  noticed  it  also  on  the  "  Colonial "  pottery. 
The  name  of  "  Dipylon "  is  frequently  applied  to 
vases  of  this  class,  from  the  circumstance  that  a 
large  proportion  of  them  have  been  found  at  a 
great  depth  near  the  Dipylon  gate  at  Athens.1  The 
simplest  forms  are  those  of  PL  III.  Nos.  1-2  and 

1  See  4  Annali  dell'  Inst./  1872,  p.  135.  In  one  tomb  where  the 
contents  are  noted,  were  found  along  with  the  vases  a  silver  fibula 
and  objects  in  bronze  and  gold.    In  others  of  the  same  class  were 

D 


(Enochoe,  geometric  patterns.  Athens. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.  3J  in. 


34     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


Fig.  22. 


Vase. 


Cyprus.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  5f  in. 

Fig.  23. 


Fig.  21,  where  almost  the  whole  vase  is  covered  with 

geometric  decoration. 
The  traditions  in  which 
the  painter  had  been 
brought  np?  did  not 
allow  him  to  leave 
blank  spaces.  He  has 
none  of  the  freedom 
of  the  "  Colonial " 
potter  ;  he  does  not 
venture  like  him  to 
constitute  a  front  and 
back  to  his  vase,  and 
to  place  his  design  on 
the  vase,  so  that  it 
may  command  the 
best  attention.  He  is, 
in  short,  a  slave  to  the 
very  fine  and  practised 
skill  which  he  pos- 
sesses. 

We  see  an  advance 
on  the  large  vase, 
PI.  III.  No.  3,  now  in 
Athens,  where  the 
painter  attempts,  as 
not  unfrequently  hap- 
pened on  these  vases, 


(Enochoe.    Cyprus.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.  1J  in. 


to  show  us  a  funeral  scene  ;  in  the  upper  band  a  hearse 
with  mourners,  in  the  lower  a  procession  of  chariots. 


bronze  spear-heads,  and  thin  bands  of  gold  embossed  with  figures 
of  deer,  &c.  (ibid.  p.  154).  The  large  vase  on  our  PI.  III.,  No.  3,  is 
described,  c  Annali,'  p.  142,  and  engraved  in  the  '  Mon.  dell  Inst.,' 
ix.  Pis.  39-40,  fig.  1. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


35 


These  large  vases  were  placed  on  tombs  as  memorials,1 
and  no  doubt  this  particular  vase  had  been  made 
expressly  for  a  funeral  ceremony.  In  Athens  there 
were  painters  of  vases  for  the  dead  in  the  time  of  Aris- 
tophanes. From  the  oldest  date  the  kerameikos,  or 
potters'  quarter,  had  been  closely  allied  with  the 
burying-place  of  Athens.  It  was  there  that  the  potters 
found  much  of  their  trade.  Still  the  faculty  of  choos- 
ing for  such  a  vase  as  this  an  actual  scene  which  could 


Fig.  24. 


Lebes.    Camiros.    Brit.  Mns. 
Ht.  9  in. 


be  witnessed  any  day,  implies  a  vigour  of  thought 
from  which  subsequently  much  was  to  be  expected. 
At  present  the  realization  is  highly  imperfect.  Very 
possibly  the  impetus  came  from  Egypt,  where  the 
cultus  of  the  dead  had  been  from  time  immemorial  a 
powerful  element  in  the  lives  of  the  people.  Much  has 
been  written  of  the  nude  female  mourners  who  iare 
seen  at  funerals  on  some  of  these  vases.  It  has  been 
argued  with  reason  that  the  idea  of  nude  female  figures 
in  art  had  its  origin  in  Assyria,  and  had  thence  found 

1  4  Deltion,'  1891,  p.  33. 

D  2 


36     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


its  way  to  Greece  through  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  and 
Cyprus,  perhaps  about  the  middle  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.1 
Later  on  we  propose  to  speak  of  the  representation 
of  war-ships  which  occur  on  those  vases. 

It  may  be  noted  that  there  is  in  Athens  one  vase 
of  this  style,  bearing  an  incised  inscription  which  may 
be  dated  about  600  B.C.  We  must,  therefore,  allow  that 
the  style  lasted  down  to  that  date,  however  early  it 
may  have  begun.  We  have  no  means 
of  dating  its  commencement.  It  has 
some  points  of  contact,  as  we  have 
shown,  with  the  "  Colonial "  pottery, 
and  in  PI.  III.  No.  4,  we  see  that  it 
has  taken  in  hand  the  representation 
of  such  legendary  creatures  as  the 
Centaur,  which  here,  as  in  early  Greek 
art  generally,  has  human  instead  of 
equine  forelegs.  Behind  the  Centaur 
is  one  of  these  gryphons  familiar  on 
vases  of  a  succeeding  period. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  spaces 
around  these  creatures  are  filled  in 
with  geometric  patterns,  and  this 
brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  the 
next  development  of  the  geometric  style,  in  which 
animal  forms  became  predominant  (see  Figs.  25,  26). 
To  this  style  the  name  of  "  Phaleron  "  is  often  applied, 
from  the  fact  that  a  number  of  these  vases  were  found 
on  the  way  from  Athens  to  Phaleron.  Fig.  26  is  perhaps 
the  best  known  of  these  vases.  Apart  from  the  com- 
bination of  animal  forms  with  patterns  which  it  presents, 
the  patterns  being  subsidiary  and  a  survival  only  of 
the  older  practice  of  decoration,  this  vase  deserves 
1  E.  Kroker,  <  Jahrbuch  des  Inst,  Arch.,'  1886,  p.  102. 


Fig.  25. 


(Enochoe. 
Phaleron,  Athens. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  6|  in. 


Chap.  II.] 


PKIMITIVE  PEKIOD. 


37 


special  consideration  from  the  comparison  which  it 
suggests  with  the  group  of  two  lions  sculptured  above 
the  gateway  of  Mycenae.  The  idea  is  in  both  the 
same,  and  the  natural  inference  is  that  the  Mycenae 
sculpture  belongs  to  the  same  date,  or  nearly  so,  as 
this  Athenian  vase.  The  Mycenae  sculpture,  it  is 
agreed,  is  contemporary  with  the  whole  class  of  Argive 
or  "  Colonial "  antiquities  which  we  have  just  been 
considering. 


In  PL  III.  Nos.  5  and  6  we  have  a  somewhat  different 
development  of  the  geometric  style.  These  vases  were 
found  at  Thebes  in  Boeotia,  and  are  not  free  from  a 
Bceotian  rudeness  of  execution.  Noticeably  the 
animal  forms  are  not  so  conspicuous.  The  painter  is 
more  at  home  with  his  patterns.  On  No.  5  these 
patterns  are  of  a  primitive  type,  but  the  animal 
happens  to  be  one  which  is  conspicuous,  as  we  shall 


Fig.  2(3. 


Lebes  (Burgon  Coll.).    Athens.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  11|  in. 


38     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


see,  in  a  somewhat  later  stage  of  vase  decoration.  On 
No.  6  the  patterns  are  more  elaborate.  Among  them 
is  to  be  noted  the  occurrence  of  a  pattern  consisting 
of  a  black  disc  encircled  with  purple  dots,  which  again 
is  a  characteristic  of  a  later  stage.  In  both  these 
instances  we  have  perhaps  a  beginning  of  the  decora- 
tive forms  in  question. 

There  are  now  a  considerable  number  of  vases  of 
this  "  Phaleron  "  class.  They  have  been  investigated 
carefully  and  illustrated  by  J.  Bohlau,1  who  shows  that 
they  represent  a  period  of  art  following  immediately 
after  the  Dipylon  style.  He  has  examined  minutely 
the  system  of  decorative  patterns  with  which  the 
blank  spaces  around  the  animals  or  men  are  filled  in. 
He  concludes  for  a  date  towards  the  end  of  the  7th 
cent.  B.C.,  and  this  conclusion  is  the  more  interesting 
when  we  remember  the  resemblance  between  some  of 
the  decorative  patterns  in  these  vases  and  the  pottery  of 
the  Mycenee  type.2  A  fragment  of  the  Mycenae  class 
of  pottery  with  figure  of  a  murex  has  been  found  on 
the  site  of  the  temple  of  Athene  Cranaia  in  Phocis 
with  no  signs  of  great  antiquity. 

It  should  be  stated  that  with  the  vases  from  Thebes 
were  found  among  other  things  bronze  fibulae,  bearing 
incised  designs  of  a  similarly  early  character,  an  iron 
spear-head,  and  a  porcelain  scarab  with  an  Egyptian 
design.  This  scarab  must  have  been  imported  from 
Egypt,  but  at  what  date  there  is  no  way  of  deter- 
mining from  the  evidence  of  itself.    Possibly  it  was 

1  <  Jahrbuch  des  Arch.  Inst.,'  1887,  p.  33. 

2  In  1882  I  had  argued,  from  an  examination  of  the  patterns  on 
this  pottery,  that  it  could  not  well  be  older  than  600  B.C.  (Eevue 
Archeol.,  xliv.,  p.  342).  For  other  examples  of  this  Boeotian  ware, 
see  E.  Pottier,  in  the  '  Gaz.  Archeol.,9  1888,  pi.  36. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


39 


imported  in  the  course  of  Greek  trade  with  Egypt  in 
the  7th  cent.  B.C. 

We  have  placed  on  PI.  III.  No.  7,  a  vase  found  at 
Cervetri  (Caere),  in  Etruria,  and  now  in  the  Etruscan 
Museum  on  the  Capitol  in  Borne.  We  have  so  placed 
it  because  of  the  conviction  that  it  may  equally  stand 
at  the  end  of  the  geometric  style  or  the  beginning  of 
the  next  period.  In  particular  the  ships  on  it  suggest 
a  comparison  with  the  ships  on  geometric  vases,  while 
the  armour  of  the  fighting-men  recalls  the  armour  on 
a  vase-fragment  from  Mycenae.  Indeed  the  shield  of 
the  last  man  on  the  right  is  identical  with  the  shields 
frequently  worn  by  warriors,  on  the  engraved  gems 
found  with  the  Mycenae  class  of  pottery.  Again,  there 
is  between  the  two  ships  a  rosette,  on  the  importance 
of  which  we  have  already  spoken.  On  the  reverse  is 
represented  the  Greek  legend  of  Odysseus  and  his 
companions  putting  out  the  eye  of  Polyphemos.  But 
perhaps  the  most  interesting  feature  of  the  vase  is  the 
signature  of  the  artist  which  it  bears.  His  name  has 
been  read  Aristonophos,  but  as  that  form  of  name  is 
hardly  possible,  Aristonothos  and  lastly  Aristonofos 
have  been  suggested.  So  far  as  is  known,  this  is 
the  first  instance  of  a  Greek  potter  signing  his  work. 
The  letters  may  be  dated  somewhat  after  600  B.C.1 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  Homer  knows  nothing 
of  battles  at  sea  nor  of  ships  equipped  for  that  purpose. 
It  has  been  further  shown  that  whatever  may  have 
been  the  seafaring  skill  of  the  early  Phoenicians,  yet 

1  This  vase  is  placed  in  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  by  Furtwaengler 
'  Bronzefunde  axis  Olympia,'  p.  45,  his  argument  being  that  in  style 
it  follows  on  immediately  after  the  style  of  the  Mycenae  ware,  and 
belongs  to  a  tendency  of  vase  painting  which  combined  the  geo- 
metric and  the  Oriental  styles. 


40     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  II. 


the  Greeks  had  obviously  not  profited  by  it  to  any 
great  extent,  because  we  learn  from  Thucydides 
(i.  13,  2)  that  the  first  Greek  triremes  were  built  in 
704  B.C.  by  the  Corinthian  shipbuilder  Ameinocles, 
and  that  this  was  regarded  as  a  great  invention.  This 
Ameinocles,  he  says,  built  also  four  ships  for  the 
Samians,  so  that  however  much  the  Greeks  of  the 
mainland  may  have  learnt  in  matters  of  art  from  their 
kinsmen  settled  near  Samos  and  elsewhere  in  Asia 
Minor,  yet  in  practical  inventiveness  they  were  clearly 
not  behind  them.  The  first  naval  battle  that  Thucy- 
dides was  aware  of  occurred  between  the  Corinthians 
and  Corcyrseans  in  664  B.C.  The  conclusion  is  that  the 
ships  on  the  early  Dipylon  vases  indicate  a  state  of 
shipbuilding  such  as  existed  in  Greece  about  the 
middle  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.1 

Having  thus  noticed  the  principal  characteristics 
of  primitive  Greek  pottery,  we  proceed  to  examine 
the  oldest  engraved  gems  in  Greece.  The  gems  to 
which  we  refer  have  been  found  in  some  numbers 
along  with  pottery  at  Mycenae  and  Ialysos.  In  some 
cases  the  designs  represent  the  same  subjects  as  on 
the  pottery,  e.g.,  the  cuttle-fish ;  but  in  general  the 
gems  aim  at  higher  forms  of  animal  life,  as  lions, 
bulls,  and  horses,  occasionally  introducing  the  human 
figure  in  a  rude,  elongated  form.  In  gem-engraving, 
as  in  sculpture,  no  lines  tell  with  effect  but  those 
which  are  clear,  strong,  and  well-defined ;  hence  the 
love  of  animal  and  human  forms,  which  have  been 
moulded  on  the  principle  of  resistance,  not  as  in  plant- 
life,  where  the  principle  of  yielding  plays  so  important 

1  Illustrations  of  these  ships  are  given  also  in  the  '  Monuments 
des  Etudes  Greques,'  1886,  PI.  4,  and  pp.  44,  47,  51,  57. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PEEIOD— GEMS. 


41 


a  part.  On  the  pottery  associated  with  these  gems  there 
is,  as  we  have  seen  on  PI.  II.,  and  may  see  in  many 
other  examples,  a  fondness  of  plant-life,  mostly  that  of 
aquatic  plants.  Therefore,  at  this  particular  stage  of 
civilization,  we  have  two  separate  tendencies  to 
observe.  As  to  which  of  these  tendencies  prevailed 
ultimately,  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt.  It  was  the 
sculpturesque  tendency,  with  its  animal  and  human 
forms  that  prevailed,  and  from  that  point  of  view  it 
ought  to  be  possible,  going  back  systematically  from 


Fig.  27.  Fig.  28. 


Sard.    Brit.  Mus.  Cat.,  Green  porphyry.  Crete. 

No.  55.  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.,  No.  76. 


ascertained  dates,  to  arrive  at  some  suggestion  as  to 
the  date  of  these  oldest  gems. 

The  shape  is  significant;  it  has  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  the  gems  of  Assyria,  which  were  cut  into 
cylinders,  nor  with  those  of  Egypt,  which  took  the 
form  of  scarabs,  or  beetles.  The  oldest  Greek  gems 
have  the  shape  either  of  a  nearly  circular  bean, 
whence  they  are  called  "lenticular,"  or  of  a  gland 
or  pebble,  such  as  was  used  in  slinging,  to  which 
the  name  of  "  glandular  "  is  applied.  If  we  look  for 
a  motive  which  may  have  induced  the  Greeks  to 
adopt  these  shapes  rather  than  the  cylinders  or 
scarabs  of  Assyria  and  Egypt,  we  may  remember 


42     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


Fig.  29. 


Haematite. 
Brit.  Mus.  Cat., 
No.  8. 


that  among  the  Greeks  pebbles  (yfrfj^oi)  were  em- 
ployed to  record  votes  at  public  trials,  while  beans 
(/cvcl/jlol)  were  used  for  voting  in  the 
election  of  magistrates.1  In  early  times 
pebbles  were  of  course  used  for  slinging. 
The  poet  Archilochus  (Bergk,  p.  467), 
about  700  B.C.,  refers  to  the  sling  as  a 
weapon  of  his  time,  though  not  neces- 
sarily a  weapon  used  by  the  Greeks. 
He  may  refer  to  the  barbarous  people 
of  Asia  Minor  or  to  the  Scythians.  The 
Celts,  says  Dio  Chrysostom  (Orat. 
lxxix.),  had  a  river  which  brought 
down  bits  of  amber  (electrum)  like  the 
pebbles  on  Greek  shores.  Boys  used 
to  play  with  them  and  throw  them 
away  till  the  value  of  the  amber 
came  to  be  known. 

As  regards  beans,  Pythagoras  the  philosopher,  who 
was  a  son  of  a  gem- 
engraver,  objected  to 
them  because  among 
other  reasons  they 
w  ere  symbols  of 
oligarchy.  An  im- 
portant considera- 
tion also  in  a  seal 
was  the  substance  on 
which  it  was  to  be 
impressed.    A  small 

piece  of  moist  clay  was  the  most  natural  and  most 

1  For  the  use  of  beans  in  voting  for  magistrates,  see  Herodotus, 
vi.  109;  Plutarch,  'Pericl.,'  27,  and  Pollux,  'Onomast.,'  viii.  18, 
19.    For  Pythagoras,  see  Diog.  Laert.,  viii.  34. 


Fig.  30. 


Sard.    Crete.    Brit.  Mus.  Cat.,  No.  79. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD— GEMS. 


43 


accessible  substance.  Such  a  piece  of  clay,  when 
flattened  clown  to  take  the  seal,  spreads  out  into 
a  nearly  circular  form,  and  since  a  seal  should  cover 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  surface  presented  to  it  for 
the  impression,  the  best  thing  to  do  is  to  make  the 
seal  also,  nearly  circular.  This  practical  view  of  the 
matter  has  been  taken  by  the  engravers  of  a  series  of 
cones  which  come  from  Assyria,  and  are  assigned  to 
the  7th  and  6th  cent.  B.C.  The  engraving  is  not  of  a 
purely   Assyrian   character,  but   exhibits   a  strong 


Fig.  31.  Fig.  32.  Fig.  33. 


ing  deer.  Brit.  Brit.  Mus.  Cat.,  Green  porphyry.  Brit. 
Mus.  Cat.,  No.  73.  No.  75.  Mus.  Cat.,  No.  71. 


western  influence,  which  appears  to  have  come  from 
the  coast  of  Asia  Minor. 

Greek  gems  of  the  oldest  class  (Figs.  27-40),  being 
merely  seals,  did  not  usually  aim  at  beauty.  It  was 
enough  if  they  expressed,  by  a  device  or  symbol,  the 
identity  of  the  owner,  whenever  that  identity  had  to 
be  established  for  the  many  purposes  of  trade  and 
private  life,  where  seals  were  employed  previous  to 
the  general  introduction  of  writing  about  the  middle 
of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  The  designs,  consisting  chiefly 
of  animals,  as  we  have  said,  are  frequently  contorted 
and  combined  in  a  manner  very  unlike  nature,  but 
yet  suitable  for  a  time  when  new  seals  with  new 


44     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


variations  and  combinations  of  the  old  devices  were  in 
demand,  and  when  it  was  necessary  that  the  design 
should  as  far  as  possible  cover  the  whole  surface 
of  the  seal.  Fanciful  figures  of  winged  horses, 
chimaeras,  and  such  like,  appear  to  have  owed  a  share 
at  least  of  their  origin  to  these  combinations.  Fig.  33 
is  an  example  of  what  seems  to  be  a  chimsera — that  is 
a  lion  with  a  goat's  head  rising  from  its  back,  while  in 
fact  it  may  only  be  a  heraldic  combination  of  lion  and 
goat.    In  the  same  way  the  numerous  instances  of  a 


Fig.  34. 


Sard.  Crete.  Brit. 
Mus.  Cat.,  No.  77. 


Fig  35. 


Prometheus  bound. 
Crete. 


Fig.  36. 


Steatite.    Brit.  Mus. 
Cat.,  No.  82. 


winged  horse  (Pegasus?)  on  these  gems  may  repre- 
sent merely  a  combination  of  horse  and  bird  for 
heraldic  purposes,  and  not  at  all  a  creation  of  poetic 
fancy.  Poets  may  ride  the  winged  horse  Pegasus, 
but  we  need  not  say  that  the  poets  created  him.1  The 
winged  horse  in  the  gems  is  in  no  way  associated  with 
Bellerophon,  as  in  subsequent  art.  Indeed,  instances 
of  legendary  persons  on  these  gems  are  rare.  Fig.  36, 
Heracles  wrestling  with  the  sea-god  Nereus,  is  an 
example.    Fig.  35,  representing  Prometheus  bound,  is 

1  Dio  Chrysostom,  Orat.  xxxii.  35,  says,  ola  TroLrjTal  <al  drjfuovpyol 
irkaTTovcriv  Kevravpovs  re  koi  2(plyyas  Kai  Xifialpas  ck  7ravToda7T(ov 
(pvcrecov  els  fiiav  jxop^v  elba>\ov  £vvtl6€vt€s. 


Chap.  II.] 


PK1MIT1YE  PERIOD — GEMS. 


45 


a  subject  which  occurs  on  an  archaic  vase  of  about  the 
end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  presumably  this  very 
line  example  of  that  class  of  gems  is  little  older  than 
this  date.  Fig.  38,  two  men  seizing  a  bull  by  the 
horns,  is  interesting,  both  as  presumably  an  original 
type  of  the  group  of  Amphion  and  Zethos  binding 
Dirke  to  the  bull,  and  as  showing  that  the  figure, 
apparently  above  the  Tiryns  bull  (Fig.  115),  is  really 
on  the  off  side  of  it. 

From  the  point  of  view  that  a  seal  may,  equally 
with  a  coin,  be  a  tender  of  honesty  in  a  transaction,  and 


Fig.  37.  Fig.  38. 


Green  jasper :  Leto  (?)  and  swans.       Haematite.    Brit.  Mus. 
Brit.  Mus.  Cat.,  No.  83.  From  Greece. 

from  the  fact  that  the  ^Ethiopians  used  engraved  stones 
(\L9ol  iyyeyXvfjLfjLevoi,)  as  coins,  while  the  Carthaginians 
are  said  to  have  employed  for  the  same  purpose  an 
object  enclosed  in  a  small  piece  of  leather  and  sealed 
up,  it  may  reasonably  be  inferred  that  these  oldest 
Greek  gems  had  immediately  preceded  the  intro- 
duction of  coinage.  A  sufficient  test  of  the  soundness 
of  this  inference  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
oldest-known  coins  are  very  like  our  lenticular  gems, 
both  in  shape  and  design.  The  origin  of  Greek 
coinage  is  now  believed  to  go  back  no  further  than 
the  beginning  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  to  have  been 
the  invention  of  Gyges,  the  king  of  Lydia,  whose 


46     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


fame  in  antiquity  was  associated  with  a  mysterious 
finger-ring,  which  had  the  property  of  making  him 
visible  or  invisible  according  as  he  turned  it  round  on 
its  swivel.1  The  invention  of  coinage  has  been 
ascribed  also  to  Pheidon,  the  tyrant  of  Argos,  but 
that  is  now  believed  to  give  too  early  a  date.  It  is 
difficult,  of  course,  to  determine  how  long  engraved 
seals  may  have  served  in  Greece  as  a  substitute  for 
money  previous  to  the  invention  of  coinage. 

The  gems  themselves  exhibit   certain  stages  of 


Fig.  39.  Fig.  40. 


Rock-crystal.    IaJysos.    Brit.  Sard.    Ialysos.    Brit.  Mus. 

Mus.  Cat.,  No.  107.  Cat.,  No.  106. 


development  from  rude  animal  forms,  as  on  Figs.  27 
and  33,  to  the  boldly-engraved  bull,  Fig.  39,  on  rock- 
crystal,  which  was  found  at  Ialysos  with  the  " Colonial" 
pottery.  Yet  when  we  find  at  Ialysos  gems  of  such 
varying  degrees  of  skill  it  becomes  doubtful  whether 
different  degrees  of  skill  should  count  as  indicating 
much  more  than  the  varying  ability  of  engravers  in  one 
generation,  and  whether  we  should  not  rather  be 

1  Herodotus,  i.  8  fol.,  does  not  include  the  story  of  the  ring  in 
his  account  of  Gryges,  as  one  would  expect  had  it  been  current  in 
his  time,  and  when  he  was  staying  in  the  region  of  Lydia.  The 
story  is  told  by  Plato  '  Bepubl.,'  ii.  3. 


47 


inclined  to  assign  a  comparatively  limited  period 
for  the  production  of  these  gems.  Homer  never 
mentions  engraved  gems,  though  there  are  passages 
where  he  would  have  been  certain  to  have  spoken  of 
them  had  he  known  of  their  existence.  Pliny  quotes 
the  silence  of  Homer  as  evidence  that  gem-engraving 
had  not  been  in  practice  in  his  day. 

On  a  certain  number  of  these  gems  human  figures 
occur ;  where  they  are  men  they  are  mostly  armed, 
and  the  shape  of  the  armour  is  much  the  same  as  on 
the  geometric  vases  from  the  Dipylon  gate  at  Athens. 
The  shields  are  generally  of  a  curious  form,  not  unlike 
the  figure  8 — that  is  to  say,  they  are  shields  which 
have  pieces  hollowed  out  at  the  sides  to  allow  the 
arms  of  the  wearer  to  move  backwards,  when  the 
shield  is  swung  on  his  back,  as  we  sometimes  see  it  on 
archaic  Greek  vases.  This  circumstance  reminds  us 
of  what  Herodotus  says  (i.  171)  of  the  armour  of 
the  ancient  Carians :  that  the  Carians  had  been  the 
inventors  of  armour,  and  that  they  introduced  handles 
to  their  shields,  which  previously  had  been  carried  by 
means  of  leather  thongs  round  the  neck  and  left 
shoulder.1  The  Carians  were  a  fighting  race ;  we 
know  them  as  mercenaries  in  Egypt  assisting 
Psammetichos  in  the  latter  half  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C. 
They  gave  rise  to  the  proverb  (iv  Kapal  klvSvvov),  and 
were  a  bye-word  as  mercenaries  in  the  time  of  the 
poet  Archilochus  (Bergk,  p.  472)  about  700  B.C.2  The 

1  Strabo,  xiv.  661,  says  the  Carians  invented  ra  o^ea/a,  ra 
€7TL(Tr]fxa  Kal  tovs  \6<fiovs,  and  he  then  quotes  the  fragment  of 
Alcasus,  \6<fiov  re  o-elcov  KapiKov  (Bergk,  Frag.  Poet.  Lyr.,  p.  575). 

2  iElian,  '  Hist.  Animal.,'  xii.  30,  says  that  the  Carians  were  the 
first  to  serve  as  mercenaries  and  to  place  crests  on  their  helmets. 
Later  on  (xiii.  2)  he  speaks  of  them  as  catching  certain  fish 
(o-apyoi)  with  baited  hooks. 


48     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


island  of  Lemnos  was  inhabited  by  Carians  when 
Miltiades  sailed  to  take  possession  of  it  (Cornelius 
N  epos,  '  Miltiades ').  Thucydides  (i.  8)  tells  us  that 
when  the  ancient  tombs  in  Delos  were  opened  at  the 
command  of  an  oracle,  and  the  contents  removed  from 
the  island,  more  than  half  of  them  were  recognised 
as  Carian  from  the  weapons  they  contained,  from  the 
mode  of  burial  being  the  same  as  still  practised  by 
the  Carians  in  his  time.  Doubtless  these  weapons 
were  of  the  same  kind  as  those  which  Cimon  found  in 
the  tomb  in  Scyros,  when  he  went  to  remove  the  bones 
of  Theseus  to  Athens  (Plutarch,  'Cimon').  We 
can  imagine  that  when  the  Spartans  removed  the 
bones  of  Orestes  from  Tegea  in  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 
they  also  met  with  bronze  weapons  ;  at  all  events  the 
bones  were  found  in  the  court  of  a  smith's  house.1 

It  may  be  assumed  that  Herodotus,  in  speaking  of 
the  Carians,  meant  those  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  that 
the  improvement  of  the  shield  which  he  mentions  was 
introduced  then.  If  that  improvement  followed  upon 
the  shape  of  the  shield  wrhich  we  see  on  the  gems  in 
question,  as  we  believe  it  did,  then  the  gems 
represent  a  period  immediately  preceding  the  7th 
cent.  B.C. ;  a  result  which  coincides  with  what  we 
have  previously  been  led  to  regard  as  more  or  less 
certain  in  reference  to  the  pottery  found  with  the 
gems,  though  here  also  we  have  no  exact  means  of 
determining  the  period  during  which  the  particular 
fashion  may  have  prevailed. 

The  transition  from  gems  of  this  class  to  those  in 
the  form  of  a  scarab,  or  rather  a  scaraboid,  was,  we 
think,  associated   with  the  name  of  the  sculptor 


1  Herodotus,  i.  68. 


Chap.  II.] 


PRIMITIVE  PEKIOD — GEMS. 


49 


Tkeodoros  of  Samos,  who,  it  is  said,  made  a  statue  of 
himself,  holding  in  one  hand  an  engraver's  tool,  and 
in  the  other  a  gem  in  form  of  a  scarab,  with  the 
design  of  a  quadriga  engraved  on  it.  Such  seems 
to  be  the  meaning  of  the  words  of  Pliny.  It  was 
Theodoros  also  who  made  the  famous  seal  of  Polycrates, 
the  tyrant  of  Samos  (b.c.  560-522).  In  the  story 
about  casting  this  seal  into  the  sea,  at  the  instance 
indirectly  of  Amasis,  king  of  Egypt,  we  have  a 
suggestion  that  the  seal  may  have  had  the  Egyptian 
form  of  a  scarab,  while  again  its  being  seized  by  a  fish 
was  more  likely  to  have  happened  if  the  seal  had  been 
in  the  form  of  a  beetle  than  otherwise. 

Where  female  figures  occur  on  these  early  gems  the 
dress  is  certainly  rendered  in  a  manner  which  more 
resembles  that  of  very  ancient  Assyrian  cylinders 
than  any  other  known  artistic  representation  of  dress. 
There  we  have  no  points  of  comparison  with  the 
Dipylon  vases,  or  with  anything  else  in  Greece.  The 
nearest  analogy  is  to  be  found  in  the  semi-Greek  art  of 
Cyprus ;  but  that  would  not  necessarily  lead  us  to  a 
very  remote  antiquity,  not  necessarily  much  before  the 
7th  cent.  B.C. 

The  peculiar  dress  of  women  on  these  gems  is  to  be 
seen  also  on  a  piece  of  painted  stucco1  from  the  wall 
of  a  house  at  Mycenae.  With  it  were  found  several 
other  fragments  of  painting  of  the  "  Colonial "  style. 
Among  them  was  one 2  on  which  is  painted  three 
figures  marching  in  procession.  These  figures  have 
each  the  head  of  an  ass,  reminding  us  of  Bottom  in 
Midsummer  Night's  Dream ;   apparently,  the  skin 

1  Ephemer.  Arch.,  1887,  PL  10,  fig.  1. 

2  Ibid.,  PI.  10,  fig.  2. 

E 


50      HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap  II. 


of  some  animal  hangs  down  the  back.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  we  compare  the  design  on  a  bronze  vase 
found  in  Cyprus/  we  shall  see  on  it,  sculptured  in 
low  relief,  two  groups  of  lions.  Each  group  consists 
of  a  pair  of  lions  standing  upright,  face  to  face,  and 
each  lion  holding  in  its  fore-paws  a  vase  of  the  shape 
known  as  an  oinochoe.  Down  the  back  of  each  lion 
hangs  a  skin  which  has  been  supposed  to  be  that  of 
a  fish,  as  worn  by  an  Assyrian  deity,2  or  it  may  be  a 
mane  as  on  the  figure  of  the  hippopotamus  goddess, 
Thoueris,  in  the  Gizeh  Museum,  dating  from  the  7th 
cent.  B.C.  When  Herodotus  (ii.  71)  described  the 
hippopotamus  as  having  a  mane  like  a  horse,  he  was 
obviously  judging  from  the  monuments,  not  from 
living  specimens.  Whatever  the  precise  meaning 
may  have  been,  we  have  on  the  bronze  vase  from 
Cyprus  precisely  the  same  kind  of  idea  as  on  the 
Mycenae  fragment  of  painting,  and  there  is  hardly 
room  for  doubt  that  ideas  of  this  kind  had  been 
derived  from  Assyrian  or  Egyptian  art,  whether 
rightly  understood  or  not.  It  is  true  that  we  have 
no  means  of  dating  this  bronze  vase  from  Cyprus,  but 
there  is  at  least  no  obvious  reason  why  it  should  be 
older  than  700  B.C.3 

A  highly  interesting  feature  in  the  tombs  of  Mycenae 
and  lalysos  was  the  series  of  bronze  weapons,  swords, 
knives  and  spear-heads  (Fig.  20).    A  bronze  knife 

1  Perrot,  <  La  Phenicie/  fig.  556. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  794.  For  gems  with  this  same  type  of  figure,  see 
Milchhoefer,  Anfange  der  Kunst,  pp.  55  and  68. 

3  Compare  the  gem,  said  to  have  been  found  at  Or  vie  to,  on 
which  is  a  figure  between  two  lions,  each  lion  standing  on  its  hind- 
legs  and  holding  an  oinochoe ,  6  Annali  dell'  Inst.  Arch./  1885,  PI.  G. 
No.  8,  p.  195. 


Chap.  II.]  PKIMITIVE  PERIOD — BRONZE  WEAPONS.  51 


among  them  has  had  an  ivory  handle,  in  connection 
with  which  we  may  quote 
the  fragment  of  the  poet 
AIcsbus  (Bergk,  p.  578), 
which  speaks  of  a  sword 
with  ivory  handle  brought 
as  a  prize  from  Babylonia. 
In  particular  we  should 
notice  the  short  swords 
of  bronze  from  MycenaB, 
inlaid  with  designs  (see 
Fig.  41),  which  so  ob- 
viously remind  us  of 
Egypt  that  they  cannot 
be  supposed  to  have  been 
made  except  by  men  either 
residing  in  Egypt,  or  well 
acquainted  with  the  art  of 
that  country.  If  these 
workmen  were  Phoenicians, 
there  appears  to  be  no 
definite  period  to  which 
we  can  assign  their  inter- 
course with  Egypt ;  but  if 
they  were  of  a  Greek  race^ 
we  should  again  be  in- 
clined, in  seeking  to 
determine  their  date,  to 
begin  with  the  period  of 
the    Carian   and  Ionian 

mercenaries  who  served  in  Egypt  in  the  latter  half  of 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  under  King  Psammetichos  I.,  by 
whom  they  were  ultimately  established  in  the  Delta. 
How  long  before  then  the  Greeks  of  Ionia  had  been 

e  2 


52     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AECHJEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


in  the  habit  of  visiting  Egypt,  it  is  of  course  impossible 
to  say.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  that,  ac- 
cording to  Herodotus  (i.  105),  the  Scythians,  after 
defeating  the  Medes,  and  swarming  over  Asia  Minor, 
made  towards  Egypt,  but  were  met  in  Palestine  by 
Psammetichos  (died  611  B.C.),  bringing  presents  for 
them,  upon  which  they  agreed  to  retire.  Here  Hero- 
dotus says  that  the  Scythians  had  then  held  Asia 
Minor  for  twenty-eight  years,  a  fact  which  must 
have  operated  in  putting  back  the  arts  there  very 
considerably.  Such  remains  of  the  residence  of  the 
Ionian  Greeks  in  the  Delta  as  have  been  discovered  in 
recent  years  go  no  further  back  than  the  7th  cent. 
B.C.  Between  them  and  the  class  of  "  Colonial " 
antiquities,  as  we  have  called  them,  there  is  much 
divergence  in  point  of  artistic  taste,  but  far  less 
divergence  in  the  matter  of  technical  skill. 

Before  leaving  the  Mycenae  dagger  (Fig.  41),  it 
should  be  stated  that  another  bronze  dagger,  also 
inlaid,  is  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  tomb  of  the 
Egyptian  queen  of  Ahmes  (18th  dynasty),  along  with 
several  silver  ornaments  in  the  shape  of  flies,  not 
unlike  those  of  Mycenae.  But  with  them  was  a  gold 
chain,  and  a  pair  of  gold  earrings  of  filigree  work,  with 
pendants  of  pomegranate  and  lotus  which  are  clearly 
of  Greek  workmanship  of  about  600  B.C.  (Mariette, 
<  Album  du  Musee  de  Boulaq,'  Pis.  29-31). 

In  connection  with  this  question  of  armour,  let  us 
take  the  description  of  a  great  house  contained  in  a 
fragment  of  the  poet  Alcaeus  :  1  The  house  glittered 
with  bronze,  everything  spoke  of  war,  shining  helmets 
with  white  plumes,  bright  bronze  greaves  hung  on 


1  Bergk,  Poet.  Lyr.  Gr.,  p.  573. 


Chap.  ILJ        PRIMITIVE  PERIOD — TOMBS. 


53 


hidden  pegs  ;  there  were  a  spear-head,  cuirasses  of 
linen,  shields,  Chalcidian  swords,  many  coats  of  mail 
and  garments.  If  the  poet  is  here  describing  a  house 
of  his  own  time,  as  we  may  well  believe,  then  the 
picture  is  not  so  very  different  from  what  the  tombs  of 
Mycenae  and  Ialysos  reveal  that  we  need  assume  the 
latter  to  have  been  many  centuries  older.  The  con- 
tents of  a  tomb  would,  as  a  rule,  give  a  fair  notion  of 
the  contemporary  houses.  As  regards  these  tombs,  it 
is  to  be  observed  that,  though  at  Mycenae  and  Ialysos 
they  were  sunk  in  the  earth  with  the  sides  built  up, 
yet  the  tomb  at  Menicli  in  Attica,  which  contained 
precisely  similar  objects,  was  a  vaulted  structure 
resembling  the  so-called  tomb  of  Agamemnon  at 
Mycenae,  the  contents  of  which  are  unknown,  having 
been  carried  off  long  ago.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that 
vaulted  tombs  were  more  or  less  contemporary  with 
the  antiquities  of  the  colonizing  period.  Pausanias 
(ix.  4,  1)  describes  the  people  of  Panopeus  in  Phocis 
as  in  his  time  living  in  houses  like  the  huts  one  sees 
on  the  hills.  The  only  monument  he  describes  was 
the  tomb  of  Tityos,  which  was  a  large  tumulus.  It 
was  in  that  neighbourhood,  he  says  elsewhere 
(ix.  40,  6),  that  the  sceptre  of  Pelops  had  been  found, 
with  much  gold,  doubtless  in  some  old  tumulus.  The 
gold  was  probably  in  the  shape  of  vessels  like  those  of 
Mycenae  and  Vaphio  near  Amyclae.  Another  ancient 
writer,  Athenaeus  (xiii.  625),  says:  "You  may  see  all 
over  the  Peloponnesus,  but  especially  in  Lacedaemon, 
great  tumuli,  which  the  Greeks  call  the  tombs  of  the 
Phrygians  who  came  over  with  Pelops." 

Though  there  is  no  absolute  parallel  to  these  vaulted 
tombs  in  antiquity,  there  is  much  that  resembles  them 
among  the  early  tombs  of  Etruria,  and  near  Sardes  in 


54     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


Lydia.  As  to  Lydia,  we  have  in  Herodotus  (i.  93)  a 
description  of  the  making  of  the  tomb  of  King 
Alyattes,  who  died  B.C.  560. 

Whether  or  not  the  great  tumulus  among  the  Bin 
Tepe,  or  "  thousand  tombs/'  near  Sardes,  which  Mr. 
Spiegelthal  opened  in  1854,  was  actually  the  tomb  of 
Alyattes,  we  have  in  the  pottery  found  in  identical 
tumuli  on  this  spot  evidence  of  a  date  somewhere  in 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.1  The  sculptured  couches  found  in 
these  tumuli  seem  to  point  to  that  period.  The 
ornamentation  is  very  simple  and  pure,  partly  sculp- 
tured, and  partly  picked  out  with  red  and  green 
colour.  A  fragment  of  the  poet  Hipponax,2  who  was 
a  contemporary  of  the  oldest  Greek  sculptors  in 
marble,  speaks  of  the  tomb  of  Alyattes,  the  monument 
of  Gyges,  the  stele  of  Ardys,  as  if  they  were  all  in  one 
place,  doubtless  the  place  now  known  as  Bin  Tepe. 
It  is  of  course  possible  that  some  of  these  tumuli  may 
be  as  old  as  the  time  of  Gyges,  or  even  older.  In 
Etruria  are  many  examples  of  tombs  in  the  form  of 
circular  mounds,  with  an  outer  base  of  stone-work. 
The  Regolini-Galassi  tomb  is  vaulted,  though  not  in 
the  circular  form  of  the  tombs  of  Agamemnon  and  at 
Menidi.  All  these  facts  carry  us  back  to  the  7th  cent. 
B.C.,  and  not  much  farther.  At  the  same  time  there 
are  circumstances  connected  with  them  which  clearly 
point  to  an  anterior  period,  when  art  and  civilization 
had  made  considerable  progress.  If  Alyattes,  towards 
his  end,  made  a  present  of  a  silver  crater  on  an  iron 

1  See  Olfers,  Lydisch.  Konigsgraber  bei  Sardes ;  PI.  5  gives 
specimens  of  the  pottery ;  PI.  4  a  view  of  the  tumulus  of  Alyattes, 
as  it  is  called.  See  also  Kevue  Archeol.,  1876  (xxxii.),  pp.  73-81, 
and  PI.  13.    Perrot  and  Chipiez,  Hist,  cle  l'Art,  v.  p.  266-278. 

2  Bergk,  Poet.  Lyr.  Gr.,  p.  513. 


Chap.  II.] 


PKIMITIVE  PERIOD — TOMBS. 


55 


stand  to  the  temple  at  Delphi,  and  if  this  was  the 
work  of  Glaueos  of  Chios,  who  was  reputed  to  be 
the  inventor  of  the  process  of  soldering  iron,  we  may 
reasonably  allow  some  considerable  period  of  artistic 
or  industrial  development  among  the  Greeks  before 
the  time  of  Alyattes.  Still  we  must  remember  that 
with  the  older  civilizations  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  before 
them,  the  first  of  the  Greeks  who  took  to  handicraft 
would  make  very  rapid  progress. 

The  Etruscans,  it  is  known,  claimed  an  origin  in 
Lydia,  and,  so  far  at  least  as  tombs  are  concerned, 
there  is  much  similarity  between  the  two  countries. 
In  Etruria  are  many  tumuli.  The  oldest  painted 
pottery  found  in  that  country  is,  we  believe,  represented 
in  the  contents  of  a  tomb  at  Corneto  (Hon.  dell' 
Inst.,  x.  PI.  10),  among  which  are  an  oinochoe  with 
concentric  circles  (see  our  PI.  II.,  No.  7),  a  vase  with 
zigzag  patterns  and  rude  figures  of  birds,  and  a  vase 
in  the  shape  of  an  animal  not  unlike  Fig.  5,  but 
painted  with  zigzags,  and  rudely- drawn  birds,  while 
others  have  maeanders  and  a  general  resemblance  to 
the  Dipylon  style  of  ornamentation. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  Ptegolini-Galassi 
tomb,  the  contents  of  which  included  an  Etruscan 
inscription.  It  is  believed  that  the  introduction  of 
writing  in  Etruria  took  place  between  750-644  B.C.,1  and 
that  the  tomb  in  question  must  belong  to  somewhere 
about  700  B.C.  More  recently  there  has  been  opened  at 
Vetulonia  the  tomb  of  a  warrior  which  also  contained 
a  vase  with  an  Etruscan  inscription.  Here,  again,  a 
date  somewhere  close  on  700  B.C.  has  been  arrived  at, 
though  it  is  equally  possible  that  the  tomb  may  be 
half  a  century  later  than  that.  We  say  this  because 
1  Helbig,  < Annali,'  1876. 


56      HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  II. 


the  contents  strikingly  resemble  those  of  the  Polledrara 
tomb  at  Vulci,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  bearing  in 
mind  that  the  latter  was  the  tomb  of  a  woman,  while 
at  Vetulonia  the  tomb  was  that  of  a  warrior.1 

The  Polledrara  tomb  admits  of  being  approximately 
dated.  Among  its  contents  was  a  porcelain  scarab 
having  the  name  of  King  Psammetichos  I.,  who  died 
B.C.  611.  Allowing  that  this  scarab  may  have  been 
made  towards  the  beginning  of  his  long  reign,  we  should 
then  be  able  to  go  as  far  back  as  about  650  B.C.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  scarab  may  even  have  been  made 
after  the  death  of  Psammetichos  I.  in  611  B.C.  Much 
else  in  this  tomb  bears  witness  to  commerce  between 
Etruria  and  Egypt ;  we  have  ostrich  eggs  richly  incised, 
and  painted  in  a  style  half  Oriental  and  half  archaic 
Greek  ;  we  have  porcelain  vases  with  blundered  hiero- 
glyphics, which  could  only  have  been  made  by  persons 
not  fully  acquainted  with  hieroglyphics.  On  one  of 
the  ostrich  eggs  is  incised  the  Greek  letter  A  in  a 
form  which  coincides  with  the  writing  of  the  Greeks 
resident  at  Naucratis,  in  Egypt,  towards  the  end  of 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.  More  than  that,  one  of  the  painted 
vases  corresponds  perfectly  in  shape  and  manner  of 
decoration  with  the  pottery  found  abundantly  in  late 
years  at  Naucratis,  except  that  the  colours  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  fired  on  to  the  vase,  as  at  Naucratis. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  to  find  actual  antiquities 
illustrative  of  Greek  intercourse  with  Egypt  at  this 
period,  we  should  go  to  Etruria,  and  not  to  Greece 
itself.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Greeks 
in  Egypt  in  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  were  Greeks  of  Asia 

1  For  the  tomb  at  Vetulonia  see  a  short  account  in  the  '  American 
Journal  of  Archeology/  1888,  p.  177,  Pis.  10-11. 


Chap.  II  ] 


PRIMITIVE  PERIOD. 


57 


Minor,  and   not  of  the  mainland  of  Greece.  For 
some  reason,  the  mainland  did  not  participate  in  those 
ventures  in  Egypt  till  a  later  time.    It  had  its  own 
system  of  colonization  to  look  after  for  one  thing; 
but,  whatever  may  have  been  the  reason,  it  is  just 
possible  that  a  period  covering  the  7th  cent.,  and 
extending,  perhaps,  into  the  8th  cent.  B.C.,  was  the 
time  in  which  the  pottery  and  other  antiquities  of 
the  Mycenae  class  were  produced  for  the  home  market 
of  Greece,  and  possibly  in  Greece  itself.    That  period 
coincides  with  the  rule  of  the  tyrants  in  Greece ;  men 
like  Pheidon  of  Argos,  Kypselos  of  Corinth,  and  his 
son  Periander.    Greek  history  says  little  of  how  they 
ruled ;  but  if  we  judge  them  by  a  comparison  with 
Poly  crates,  the  tyrant  of  Samos,  then  they  may  be 
supposed  to  have  maintained  their  sway  by  large 
bodies  of  men,  who  were  at  their  bidding  for  war,  or 
for  the  execution  of  public  works  on  a  magnificent 
scale  in  times  of  peace.    At  such  a  period  we  can 
conceive  the  great  walls  of  Mycenae  and  Tiryns, 
together  with  the  vaulted  tombs  of  Mycenae,  to  have 
been  built  in  rivalry  with  the  tomb  of  their  con- 
temporary Alyattes,  which  Herodotus  compared  to 
the  wonders  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia.    We  are  told 
of  skilled  workmen  who   emigrated  from  Corinth 
during  the  reign  of  the  Kypselidje,  and  established 
themselves  in  Etruria.     We  know  that  Corinth  was 
celebrated  for  its   ship-building  in   the  period  in 
question. 


58      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


CHAPTER  III. 

CONTINUATION  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  VASE-PAINTING, 

cocnrep  av  ei  ns  .  .  .  Zev^iba  Kcii  Uappdcriov  rr)v  avrrjv  ^X€LV 
T€%vi]v  (pair]  rols  rd  mvaKia  ypdcpovo'iv. 

Isocrates,  De  Permut.  2. 

We  have  already  noticed  briefly  the  two  stages  of 
pottery  which  followed  on  immediately  after  the 
geometric  or  Dipylon  style,  and  the  MycenaB  or 
"  Colonial "  style.  How  far  these  two  new  stages  were 
direct  descendants  respectively  of  the  two  older  styles 
here  mentioned,  may  be  open  to  question  in  some 
respects ;  but  there  is  at  least  no  doubt  that  the 
geometric,  or  Dipylon,  left  a  direct  descendant  in 
the  class  of  vases  represented  by  Fig.  26,  known  as 
the  Burgon  lebes.  How  blank  the  vacant  spaces 
above  and  below  the  two  lions  must  have  looked  to 
the  painter  of  the  vase,  and  how  he  missed  the  old 
geometric  or  wave  patterns  which  once  left  no  blank 
spaces  !  He  has  preserved  snatches  of  them  wherever 
he  could,  probably  because  it  had  become  a  sort  of 
instinct  with  him  to  paint  them.  And  so  little  has 
this  been  understood,  that  one  may  often  hear  what  is 
simply  a  bit  of  maeander,  painted  between  the  legs  of 
a  lion,  or  on  some  other  vacant  spot,  described  as  a 
suastika,  or  ancient  Indian  symbol. 

There  is  no  mistaking  the  rows  of  animals  on  this  new 
class  of  vases.   They  are  Assyrian,  both  in  their  nature 


Chap.  III.] 


ARCHAIC  PERIOD — VASES. 


59 


as  animals  and  in  the  manner  in  which  they  are 
applied  on  the  vases  (Figs.  42-44).  The  lion,  familiar 
enough  in  Assyria,  and  constantly  occurring  in 
Assyrian  art,  was  not,  in  historical  times  at  least,  a 
native  of  Greece.  Of  the  wild  boar,  bulls,  deer,  goats, 
it  may  be  said,  no  doubt,  that  they  could  have  been 
seen  alive  in  Greece.  On  the  other  hand,  in  Assyria 
the  protection  of  these  creatures  for  the  chase  was  so 
considerable  an  occupa- 

Fig;  42 

tion,  and  the  representa- 
tion of  royal  hunts  was 
so  frequent  and  obligatory 
in  art,  that  the  artistic 
forms  of  these  animals 
readily  became  familiar 
there,  and  found  their  way 
into  the  embroidered 
curtains,  and  other  pro- 
ducts of  industrial  art 
exported  from  Babylonia 
by  Phoenician  traders, 
and  copied  in  Cyprus  by 
Greeks,  of  whom  the 
two,  Akesas  and  Helicon, 
known   to  us  by  name, 

may  represent  no  small  body.  It  is  to  be  remembered 
also  that  in  embroidery  the  ground  mostly  consists  of 
a  coarse  material  like  canvas,  the  whole  of  which  has 
to  be  concealed  by  patterns  or  designs. 

We  may,  then,  confidently  trace  an  Assyrian 
influence  in  those  vases  which  are  decorated  with 
bands  of  Oriental  animals  in  the  manner  of  those  long- 
bands  of  friezes  which  have  survived  from  the  palaces 
of  the  kings  of  Assyria.    The  question  remains,  how- 


(Enochc-e  without  incised  lines. 
Camiros.  Brit.  Mus.    Ht.  lOf  in. 


60      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  III. 


ever,  as  to  the  channel  through  which  this  influence 
worked  its  way.  The  mere  importation  of  Babylonian 
textile  fabrics — such  as  those  mentioned  by  Euripides 
(Ion,  1158) — could  not  alone  suffice  to  give  the 
necessary  impulse.  Had  the  Greeks  been  a  very 
imitative  people,  as  they  were  not,  this  importation 
might  have  led  to  the  exact  copying  of  Babylonian 
designs.  But  that  is  not  what  we  find.  We  find  an 
adaptation  only  of  these  designs,  such  an  adaptation 
as  is  easily  conceivable  among  the  early  Greek  colonists 

Fig.  43. 


Lebes,  with  dedication  by  Sostratos  to  Aphrodite.  Naucratis. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Dia.  1  ft.  2i  in. 


of  Bhodes,  and  still  more  among  the  Greek  settlers  in 
the  Delta  of  Egypt  in  the  7th  cent.,  B.C.,  where  in 
their  art  industries  they  were  thrown  into  daily  com- 
petition with  the  Phoenicians.  But  why,  it  may  be 
asked,  did  not  these  early  colonists,  and  in  particular 
the  settlers  in  Egypt,  copy  Egyptian  designs  on  their 
vases  ?  The  explanation,  we  think,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  simple  fact  that  Egyptian  art  was  essentially 
monumental,  and  not  of  an  industrial  order,  while 
Assyrian  art  was  peculiarly  industrial  in  character. 
Assyria  had  no  sculpture  except  what  was  decorative, 
it  had  no  statues  to  speak  of,  it  never  got  fairly  beyond 


Chap.  III.]  AKCHAIC  PERIOD — VASES. 


61 


friezes  in  bas-relief.  The  fantastic  winged  beings  so 
frequent  in  Assyrian  art  were  such  as  an  imagination, 
prompted  by  technical  necessities,  is  ever  ready  to 
create.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  two  principal  sources 
of  these  Greeco-Asiatic  vases,  as  they  have  been 
appropriately  named,  are  Ehodes  and  Naucratis  in 
Egypt,  and  our  argument  is  that  this  style  of  decora- 
tion was  first  invented  in  those  places,  finding  its 
way  afterwards  under  modifications,  to  Athens  and 
Corinth. 

That,  itself,  would  be  a  natural  view-  to  take  of  the 
matter  ;  but  it  is  confirmed  by  a  difference  observ- 
able in  the  habit  already  referred  to,  of  retaining 
wherever  possible  some  bit  of  the  older  system  of 
geometric  patterns,  and  forcing  it  upon  the  vase  where 
vacant  spaces  occurred  in  the  field  of  the  design. 
The  vase  painters  of  Khodes  certainly  knew  this  older 
system  of  geometric  patterns,  as  many  specimens  of  it 
now  in  the  British  Museum  testify  (e.g.,  Fig.  24).  It 
is  likely  that  the  potters  of  Naucratis  also  knew  it, 
though  as  yet  very  little  evidence  has  been  obtained 
on  the  point.  Now,  if  we  compare  vases  from  Ehodes 
produced  under  this  new  orientalizing  influence,  with 
vases  from  Athens  exhibiting  the  same  tendency,  such 
as  the  Burgon  vase  (Fig.  26),  together  with  others  of 
the  kind  found  at  Phaleron  (Fig.  25),  it  will  be  seen 
that  while  both  styles  retain  bits  of  the  old  geometric 
patterns,  the  Athenian  vases  are  more  conservative  of 
them,  and  adhere  more  tenaciously  to  the  older  shapes 
which  gave  the  best  scope  for  these  patterns.  It  would 
thus  seem  that  the  farther  the  potter  was  removed 
from  the  actual  centre  of  Oriental  influence,  as  in 
Athens,  the  more  free  was  he  to  choose  and  adapt 
from  it  just  what  suited  his  notions  and  principles. 


62      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


Equally  it  would  be  expected  that  Greek  vase  painters, 
living  in  districts  where  they  could  hardly  escape  this 
influence,  would  soon,  after  their  first  protest  in  favour 
of  the  old  method,  yield  themselves  more  completely 
to  the  new. 

How   rapidly  every  trace  of  the  old  geometric 

method  now  disap- 
peared may  be  seen 
in  a  series  of 
oenochose  from 
Camiros  in  Khodes, 
which  without  a 
closer  examination, 
would  pass  for  being 
identical  in  all  re- 
spects with  the 
oenochose  from  the 
same  quarter  on 
which  the  geometric 
patterns  were  re- 
tained in  snatches. 
They  (Fig.  44)  have 
the  same  shape  and 
colours,  the  same 
rows  of  animals,  but 
the  spaces  around  the 
animals  are  filled  in 
with  rosettes,  and  not  with  geometric  patterns.  That 
this  is  a  later  stage  of  vase  painting  is  evident  from 
the  clumsy  drawing  of  the  animals,  from  the  negli- 
gence with  which  the  rosettes  are  given,  and  from  the 
fact  that  incised  lines  are  here  introduced  for  the  first 
time,  in  any  noticeable  extent,  to  mark  out  details  of 
drawing.    The  shapes  of  these  vases  are  undoubtedly 


Fig.  u. 


OEnochoe  with  incised  lines.  Camiros. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.  1J  in. 


Chap.  III.] 


AKCHAIC  PEEIOD — VASES. 


63 


finer  than  the  others,  and  this  appears  to  be  due  to  a 
greater  skill  which  had  been  attained  in  firing  them. 
This  also  would  be  consistent  with  a  later  date.  Much 
later  it  need  not  have  been. 

The  rosette  thus  applied  was  obviously  a  new 
element  in  vase  decoration,  and  fortunately  it  did  not 
long  retain  favour.    It  had  been  one  of  the  most 
common  forms  of  ornament  in  Assyria.    Indeed,  there 
was  once  a  long  contention  that  it  was  exclusively 
Assyrian.    Since  then,  however,  the  rosette  has  been 
found  in  Egyptian  decoration  also,  though  not  at  all 
to  an  extent  that  invalidates  the  claim  of  Assyria  to 
have  invented  it,  so  profuse  is  the  application  of  it 
there,  and  so  consistent  is  its  form  with  all  that  is 
known  of  Assyrian  art.    Its  form  is  not  that  of  a  rose 
studied  from  nature — it  is  a  rose  as  it  appears  pressed 
out  on  paper,  and  this  is  the  character  also  of  other 
plants,  and  even  of  animals  and  men  as  they  are 
represented  in  the  art  of  Assyria.    They  all  seem  to 
be  pressed  out  as  suited  best  the  low  fiat  relief  of 
Assyrian   sculpture.     This   principle  of  decoration 
suited  equally  the  embroidery  of  curtains  and  costumes, 
and  we  have  no  difficulty  in  believing  that  their 
fabrics,  embroidered  in  this  manner  with  figures  of 
animals  on  a  ground  studded  with  rosettes,  found 
their  way  readily  to  places  like  Ehodes  and  Naucratis, 
where,  for  a  time  at  least,  they  were  copied  by  the 
vase  painters.    It  seems  always  to  have  been  the 
practice  of  the  vase  painter  to  follow  hand  in  hand 
with  the  weaver  and  embroiderer.    In  later  times  the 
embroiderer,  in  his  turn,  followed  the  vase  painter  so 
closely  that  the  design  on  a  piece  of  actual  Greek 
dress  found  at  Kertch,  might  well  be  taken  for  that  of 
a  vase  of  the  4th  cent.  B.C. 


64      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


It  is  not  argued  that  the  only  Oriental  fabrics  that 
came  under  the  eyes  of  the  Greek  potters  were  studded 
with  rosettes.  We  can  believe  that  Assyrian  fabrics 
had,  in  some  instances,  geometric  patterns  also.  But 
there  is  no  evidence  of  this  habit  of  retaining  bits  of 
the  old  geometric  designs  amid  a  new  fashion,  except 
among  the  Greeks,  and  it  is  only  right  to  point  out 
their  conservative  spirit  thus  far,  which,  as  has  already 
been  said,  was  stronger  the  farther  it  was  removed 
from  the  actual  centre  of  orientalizing  influence  ;  that 
is  to  say,  stronger  in  Athens  than  in  Ehodes  or 
Naucratis. 

In  rendering  the  figures  of  animals  on  the  vases  in 
question,  the  painter  has  mostly  followed  the  Assyrian 
habit  of  placing  them  in  a  row,  each  represented  in 
profile  and  as  it  were  pressed  out  on  paper,  as  we 
have  said.  But  occasionally  he  exhibits  a  discontent 
with  this  view  of  only  one  side  of  his  lion  or  other 
beast.  His  plan  of  overcoming  the  difficulty  is  to 
present  what  appears  to  be,  and  what  used  to  be 
called,  a  lion  with  two  bodies.  That  is  to  say,  he 
draws  in  first  the  face  and  fore-legs  of  the  lion,  looking 
in  front ;  then  he  draws  one  side  of  the  body  going 
one  way  and  the  other  side  going  the  other  way. 
It  is  a  simple  contrivance  such  as  children  adopt,  and 
sins  against  nothing  but  the  law  of  perspective.  The 
effect,  however,  was  ridiculous  to  those  who  did  not 
know  the  principle  of  drawing  that  had  been  followed. 
To  meet  these  critics  the  next  step  was  to  draw 
what  appears  to  be  two  complete  lions  standing 
face  to  face,  each  strictly  in  profile,  but  what  really 
is  two  side  views  of  one  and  the  same  lion,  as  in  the 
Burgon  lebes  (Fig.  26). 

We  are  yet  some  way  off  from  the  great  events 


Chap.  III.]  ARCHAIC  PERIOD — VASES.  65 


which  finally  rendered  Greece  independent  of  the 
East — the  Persian  wars.     But  obviously  the  mere 
fact  that  Greece  was  at  the  moment  of  these  wars 
able  to  oppose  so  powerful  a  front  to  her  huge  enemy 
is  a  proof  that  she  had  been  for  some  time  unceasing 
in  the  preparation  of  her  independence.    She  had,  in 
fact,  already  created  her  independence.     What  re- 
mained to  be  done  was  to  signalize  it.   And  this  applies 
to  her  art  as  well  as  to  her  national  strength.  For 
some  time  before  the  Persian  wars  her  vase  painting 
had  begun  to  take  its  place  beside  the  higher  arts  of 
sculpture  and  painting.    Vase  painters  had  become 
tired  of  the  older  methods  of  handicraft,  in  which 
different  centres  of  production  and  different  fabrics 
had  been  rivalling  each  other  in  variety  of  design, 
much  as  in  comparatively  modern  pottery,  where  only 
a  few  skilful  judges  can  detect  the  differences  wrhich 
exist  between  some  of  the  local  fabrics.    But  a  new 
era  had  already  begun  to  dawn.    It  will,  however,  be 
necessary,  still,  to  cast  an  occasional  glance  backward 
to  Oriental  influence.    The  remaining  history  of  vase 
painting,  to  which  we  at  once  proceed,  would  not 
otherwise  be  clear. 

An  interesting  question  is  the  use  of  these  painted 
vases  in  antiquity.  Not  a  few  of  them  undoubtedly 
were  made  expressly  to  hold  wine,  oil,  and  liquid 
perfumes  at  funeral  ceremonies,  and  to  be  thereafter 
placed  in  or  on  the  tombs,  unless  where  a  law  forbade 
this  as  leading  to  unnecessary  expense.  Such  a  law 
existed  in  the  island  of  Keos,  and  may  well  have 
extended  to  many  other  parts  of  Greece.  It  is 
difficult,  otherwise,  to  account  for  the  comparative 
scarcity  of  vases  in  the  tombs  of  the  very  country 
where  they  were  made  in  such  abundance  and  whence 

F 


66       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  HI. 


they  were  exported  freely  to  the  colonies  in  the 
Cyrenaica,  the  Crimea,  Southern  Italy  and  Etruria, 
where  apparently  there  was  no  hindrance  to  the 
burying  of  them  along  with  the  dead  at  whose  obsequies 
they  had  served.  The  tombs  of  Attica,  however,  have 
furnished  a  large  number  of  a  special  class  of  vases, 
which,  as  we  learn  from  Aristophanes — 

TOV   TCOV   ypd(j)€(DV  aplCTTOV  

bs  rols  V€Kpo7o~L  (coypacj^el  ras  \rjKv6ovs. 

Eccles.  995. 

— one  of  the  very  rare  references  to  painted  vases  in 
Greek  literature — were  made  expressly  for  the  dead. 
Apart  from  this  remark  of  Aristophanes  the  subjects 
painted  on  these  Attic  lekythi  so  constantly  refer  to 
the  dead  that  there  could  be  no  room  for  doubt  as  to 
their  destination.  We  have  such  subjects,  for  example, 
as  Sleep  and  Death  carrying  off  the  body  of  Sarpedon, 
to  bury  it,  as  the  passage  in  the  Iliad  describes,  or  a 
variant  of  this  legend  in  which  Boreas  and  Zephyros 
carry  off  the  body  of  Memnon  (PL  IV.).  Again,  there 
are  not  a  few  representations  of  Charon  in  his  boat  with 
its  prow  touching  the  reedy  banks  of  the  Styx,  while  he 
beckons  to  a  girl  of  great  beauty,  but/of  sad  expression, 
to  cross  the  ferry  with  him  ;  or  again  we  have  actual 
death-bed  scenes  with  the  soul  in  the  form  of  a  diminu- 
tive winged  being  flying  away  as  life  becomes  extinct. 
These  scenes,  as  we  have  said,  leave  no  doubt  that 
the  vases  of  this  class  were  made  for  funeral  ceremonies. 
Not  only  do  they  seldom  represent  any  scene  that  is 
not  immediately  connected  with  these  purposes,  but  it 
is  curious  to  observe  also  how  strictly  the  painters 
confined  themselves  to  the  actual  moment  of  death  or 
burial ;  they  did  not  go  further  than  the  edge  of  the 


Plate  IV. 


Athenian  Lekythos.    Burial  of  a  Warrior    (Brit  Mus  ) 
Ht.  l  ft.  6|  in. 


Face  p.  60. 


Chap.  III.]         AKCHAIC  PEEIOD — VASES. 


67 


Styx  with  Charon  in  his  boat.  They  did  not  venture 
to  illustrate  the  further  journey  where  the  soul  was 
received  by  Hades  and  Persephone.  Nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  did  they  go  back  on  the  life  of  the 
deceased  further  than  to  indicate,  for  example,  when 
he  was  a  warrior  and  had  fallen  in  battle.  As  a  class 
the  white  lekythi  do  not  reach  back  to  early  times. 
They  were  preceded  by  oblong  tablets  on  which 
were  painted,  exactly  in  the  manner  of  the  black- 
figure  vases,  scenes  relating  to  death  and  burial.1 
These  painted  tablets  had  in  their  turn  been 
preceded  by  the  larger  vases  of  geometric  deco- 
ration and  funeral  scenes  to  which  we  have  before 
referred. 

At  Corinth,  however,  a  number  of  archaic  tablets 
have  been  found,  on  which  the  designs  do  not 
point  to  funeral  purposes,  but  to  their  use  as 
dedications  in  temples — in  the  temple  of  Poseidon  in 
particular,  whose  name  frequently  occurs  on  them. 
The  designs  in  several  instances  illustrate  stages 
of  the  art  of  vase-making,  whence  it  may  be  inferred 
that  the  tablets  had  been  made  for  dedication  by 
potters.  In  one  case  we  see  a  picture  of  a  ship 
carrying  a  quantity  of  vases,  and  probably  these 
dedications  to  Poseidon  were  made  with  reference  to 
the  safety  of  cargoes  of  vases  exported  from  Corinth 
(Eayet  and  Collignon,  p.  xv). 

It  would  seem  to  have  been  a  not  uncommon  habit 
to  place  in  the  graves  of  athletes  who  had  won  a  prize 
in  the  games  at  Athens  the  vase  which  bore  witness 
of  his  success — a  large  amphora  on  which  was  painted 

1  Eayet  and  Collignon,  'Histoire  de  la  Ceramique  Grecque/ 
p.  143.    Benndorf,  '  Gr.  und.  Sicil.  Vasenbilder,'  Pis.  1-5. 

F  2 


68      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


on  one  side  the  species  of  contest  in  which  he  had 
won,  and  on  the  other  the  goddess  Athena,  and  not 
unfrequently  the  name  of  the  chief  magistrate  of 
Athens  for  the  year,  by  means  of  which  the  exact  date 
of  the  vase  is  determinable  (PL  X.  is  an  example). 
We  see  then  that  a  vase  found  in  a  tomb  may  have  been 
in  fact  an  object  of  special  pride  to  the  deceased  person, 
and  may  have  been  placed  beside  him  in  obedience  to 
his  wish,  or  from  a  desire  to  gratify  him  on  the  part  of 
his  relatives.  But  in  connection  with  these  prize 
vases  it  is  worth  remembering  that  in  the  older  heroic 
days  sung  of  by  Homer  a  beautiful  vase  w  as  one  of  the 
prizes  awarded  in  the  games  which  accompanied  the 
obsequies  of  a  great  person,  as,  for  instance,  at  the  games 
held  at  the  funeral  of  Patroclos.  These  Homeric  vases 
no  doubt  would  be  costly  works  of  silver  or  gold.  But 
we  can  imagine  that  in  later  times,  when  lavish  ex- 
penditure at  funerals  was  repressed  by  law,  as  Solon 
repressed  it  in  Athens,  the  humble  form  of  clay  vases 
with  painted  designs  may  have  represented  to  the 
ordinary  mind  the  ancient  habit  of  funeral  games 
and  prize  vases.  In  Athens  the  Keramikos  included 
the  potters'  quarter,  a  burying-ground,  and  a  place 
for  funeral  games.1  It  would  be  natural  for  the 
potters  to  establish  themselves  near  to  a  burying- 
ground  when  much  of  their  trade  arose  from  funeral 
ceremonies.  The  Greeks  of  Egypt  in  Ptolemaic 
times  spoke  of  the  burying-ground  at  Thebes  as  the 
"  Pottery."  2 

1  Hesy chilis  S.v.  'Err1  'Evpvyvj]  aycov  .  .  .         co  dycbva  TiBecrBai 

2  Neroutzos  Bey, 6  L'ancienne  Alexandrie,'  p.  29,  cites  from  a  Greek 
papyrus :  els  ra  Kepdp,eia  ttjs  Aij3vr]s  rov  irepl  Qrjftas  iv  rois 
Me^vcoveiois. 


Chap.  Ill  ]  AKCHAIC  PERIOD — VASES. 


69 


We  should  mention  here  another  class  of  vases, 
which,  though  they  were  not  found  in  tombs,  had  this 
much  in  common,  that  they  were,  or  rather  ought  to 
have  been,  found  in  a  temple.  We  mean  the  vases 
discovered  at  Naucratis  in  the  Delta  of  Egypt,  and 


Fig.  45. 


Fragment  of  large  vase  dedicated  by  Poleniarchos.    From  Naucratis. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Dia.  1  ft.  5  in. 


now  in  the  British  Museum  (Figs.  43  and  45).  These 
vases,  and  fragments  of  vases,  bear  inscriptions  which 
tell  that  they  had  been  dedicated  in  the  temples  of 
Apollo  and  Aphrodite  at  Naucratis,  and  it  will  appear 
quite  evident  that  they  were  so  dedicated  after  having 
served  in  a  ceremony  of  sacrifice,  if  we  consider  the 
inscription  on  one  of  them  (Fig.  45)  and  compare  it 


70      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


with  the  illustration  on  a  vase  of  the  same  class  (-Fig. 
46).  The  inscription  reads  :  "  Polernarchos  dedicated 
me  along  with  a  prochous  and  a  stand."  Now  on  a  yase 
in  the  British  Museum  (Fig.  46)  will  be  seen  painted 


Fig.  46. 


Kylix :  black  figures  on  creamy  ground.    Sacrifice.    Brit.  Mus. 
Dia.  7  in. 


a  design  which  represents  a  sacrifice  where  the  utensils 
employed  are  exactly  of  the  kind  dedicated  by 
Polernarchos,  viz. :  a  large  crater,  like  that  on  wThich 
his  inscription  is  incised,  a  small  prochous  and  a  stand 
— while  the  man  sacrificing  holds  in  his  hand  one  of 


Chap.  III.] 


AECHAIC  PERIOD — VASES. 


71 


those  bowls  which  Mr.  Petrie  found  in  great  numbers 
at  Naucratis,  inscribed  with  the  name  of  Apollo,  and 
obviously  without  any  value  except  that  which  they 
derived  from  having  been  used  at  a  religious  rite. 

What  with  the  needs  of  sacrifice,  then,  and  of 
funeral  ceremonies,  we  should  be  able  to  account  for 
a  considerable  industry  in  the  production  of  vases, 
quite  apart  from  the  question  as  to  how  far  they  may 
have  been  used  in  daily  life.  We  know  that  clay 
vases  were  in  daily  use,  and  must  have  been  frequently 
broken  in  the  days  of  ostracism,  when  it  required 
6000  votes  written  on  ostrakina,  i.e.,  fragments  of 
vases,  to  doom  a  man  to  exile,  but  we  do  not  know 
how  far  they  may  have  been  painted  with  designs.  We 
have  at  least  one  instance.  The  name  of  Xanthippos, 
son  of  Arriphron,  is  scratched  across  the  face  of  a 
fragment  of  a  finely-painted  vase  found  on  the  Acro- 
polis of  Athens.1  On  vases  of  the  kylix  shape  we  find 
not  unfrequently  banquet  scenes  where  the  guests  drink 
from  kylikes,  with  a  reserve  of  other  vases  hanging 
on  the  wall,  or  otherwise  placed.  It  is  true  that  these 
vases  are  not  indicated  as  having  painted  designs : 
that  would  have  been  difficult  to  do.  But  there  is  at 
least  one  vase  in  the  British  Museum,  a  small  Athenian 
pyxis,  representing  a  toilet  scene,  where,  among  other 
things,  is  a  vase  painted  with  figures.  The  effect, 
however,  is  so  insignificant  that  the  Greeks  must  have 
hesitated  to  do  much  of  the  same  kind.  We  may 
fairly  conclude  that  painted  vases  were  largely  used 
in  banquets,  and  in  fact  the  passage  of  Aristophanes 
quoted  above  with  reference  to  a  "  painter  of  lekythi 
for  the  dead,"  appears  to  have  been  meant  only  to 

1  4  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  161,  where  this  ostrakon  is  taken  to  refer 
to  the  banishment  of  Xanthippos. 


72       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


distinguish  the  funereal  character  of  his  occupation, 
just  as  the  existing  lekythi  are  distinguished  from 
the  more  cheerful  subjects,  which  rendered  the  other 
vases  acceptable  in  daily  life.  I  am  not  aware  that 
the  Etruscans  ever  imported  any  of  these  funereal 
lekythi,  and  that  is  a  proof  that  the  vast  number  of 
Greek  vases  which  they  did  import,  as  our  museums 
testify,  were  not  imported  in  the  first  instance  for 
the  usages  of  burial.  They  had  served  first  in  the 
household  either  for  ornament  or  use. 

Again  we  are  told  gravely  in  a  Greek  inscription  from 
Epidauros,  of  a  boy  who  had  been  carrying  his  master's 
favourite  cup,  and  had  gone  to  sleep  by  the  roadside,  to 
wake  up  and  find  the  cup  broken  in  pieces.  He  was  in 
despair,  when  a  passer-by  remarked  that  only  Ascle- 
pios,  the  healing  god  of  Epidauros,  could  mend  the 
crock.  This  the  god  is  recorded  to  have  done,  to  the 
delight  not  only  of  the  boy,  but  also  of  his  master,  who, 
when  he  heard  of  the  incident,  presented  the  cup  to 
the  temple.  We  are  entitled  to  conclude  from  the 
value  attached  to  the  vase,  that  it  had  been  painted 
with  a  design,  probably  one  of  great  beauty.  With 
this  curious  record  may  be  compared  those  occasional 
instances  of  vases  which  are  seen  to  have  been  broken 
in  ancient  times  and  mended  with  lead,  like  the 
Alcmena  crater  formerly  in  Castle  Howard,  and  now 
in  the  British  Museum. 

The  first  necessity  in  a  vase  was  its  adaptability  to 
hold  liquid  wdth  the  least  possible  exposure  to  evaporation 
compatible  with  convenience  for  filling  and  pouring. 
The  various  needs  of  the  day  and  the  variety  of  liquids — 
such  as  water,  wane,  oil,  or  milk — gradually  required 
greater  facility  of  pouring  out  liquid,  and  this  was  over- 
come in  various  ways.    When  the  quantity  to  be  poured 


Chap.  III.] 


SHAPES  OF  VASES. 


73 


out  was  considerable,  as  in  wine  or  water,  the  oenochoe 
(Figs.  42,  44,  48)  came  to  be  the  most  useful  of  all  shapes. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  and  most  beautiful  of 
Greek  vases.  It  is  in  general  so  balanced  that  pouring 
is  a  matter  of  great  ease,  while  its  trefoil  lip  admirably 
guides  the  stream  as  it  issues  from  the  neck.  The 
aryballos  and  alahastos  are  usually  small  vases  with  com- 
paratively large  capacity  and  a  narrow  mouth.  They 
were  doubtless  intended  for  liquid  perfumes  which  it  was 
necessary  to  pour  out  in  drops — whence  one  variety  of 
this  shape,  which  has  a  long  slender  neck,  has  often  been 
called  a  lachrymatory,  or  tear-bottle.  The  Aryballos  and 
Alabastos  are  most  frequent  in  the  archaic,  orientalizing 
period. 

Among  the  vases  with  long,  slender  necks,  the  lehjthos 
(PI.  IV.)  was  a  form  peculiarly  attractive  to  the  Athe- 
nians. We  have  already  noticed  the  employment  of  those 
vases  in  Athens  for  funeral  ceremonies,  and  need  only  here 
add  as  regards  the  shape  that  it  has  evidently  been 
designed  less  for  the  purpose  of  pouring  than  for  standing 
permanently  in  some  assigned  place,  and,  while  retaining 
its  contents  against  evaporation,  presenting  a  fixed 
surface  for  a  painted  decoration  in  keeping  with  its  sur- 
roundings. It  would  not  be  possible  to  pour  from  such 
a  vase,  holding  it  only  with  one  hand,  without  breaking 
it.  The  oenochoe,  finely  adapted  as  it  was  for  pouring, 
was  ill  suited,  from  its  spreading  trefoil  mouth,  for 
filling  by  dipping  it  into  a  large  crater.  For  this 
purpose  the  best  was  the  prochous,  corresponding  to  a 
modern  jug  (see  Fig.  46). 

Of  the  large  vases,  from  which  smaller  ones  were  filled 
with  wine  or  water,  or  a  mixture  of  both,  the  crater  (Figs. 
45,  46,  and  PI.  VIII.)  was  the  ordinary  form.  However 
the  handles  or  the  foot  might  differ,  it  retained  always  its 
one  essential  of  capacity ;  at  times  it  differed  so  far  as  to 
deserve  a  new  name  as  the  stamnos,  while  among  the 
later  vases  there  are  some  which  combine  the  crater  with 
the  amphora  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is  difficult  to  say 


74      HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


which  name  is  the  more  applicable  of  the  two.  Akin  to 
the  crater  is  the  lebes  (Figs.  24-26),  which  in  some 
instances  had  no  foot,  having  been  meant  to  be  placed  on 
a  tripod  or  other  stand. 

So  far  we  have  not  dealt  with  the  conveyance  of  fairly 
large  quantities  of  liquid.  For  this  purpose  the  amphora 
(Fig.  50  and  PI.  VII.)  and  the  hydria  were  the  principal 
shapes.  They  also  experienced  considerable  variations. 
In  Greek  vase-painting  at  its  best  they  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  greatest  favourites.  On  the  other  handy 
they  are  extremely  rare  among  the  vases  earlier  than 
the  6th  cent.  B.C.  The  hydria  in  its  oldest  form  is  only 
a  large  oinochoe  with  two  side  handles,  and  its  lip 
flattened  down.  The  amphora  may  be  supposed  to  have 
been  a  development  out  of  the  crater.  Among  the  vases 
used  for  drinking,  the  form  found  most  suitable  at  feasts, 
where  often  a  drinker  like  Alcibiades  in  the  Symposion 
called  for  a  deep  draught,  was  the  hylix  (PL  Y.).  To 
the  painter  this  shape  of  vase  was  no  easy  task  to  decorate, 
and  this  may  be  a  reason  why  so  many  of  them  are  without 
decoration,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  why  some  of  the  very 
finest  work  that  exists  is  to  be  found  on  the  kylikes.  It 
is  as  if  the  very  difficulty  of  designing  a  composition  for 
a  surface  which  bends  in  two  different  directions  at  once 
had  acted  as  a  challenge  to  the  best  talent  among  the 
painters.  These  vases  are  often  signed  with  the  names 
of  the  painters,  and  belong  in  general  to  about  the 
middle  of  the  5th  cent.  B.C.  They  are  rare  in  what 
is  called  the  best  period,  b.c  440-360,  or  thereabout. 
They  recur  in  the  latest  stage  of  vase-painting,  when  they 
evidently  were  made  for  decorative  purposes  and  not  for 
use  or  the  semblance  of  use,  so  large  are  they  in  dimen- 
sions frequently.  In  the  archaic  period  the  kylix  inclined 
more  to  have  a  high  foot  (Fig.  14)  and  to  be  regarded  as 
a  vase  which,  with  its  contents,  should  be  left  standing. 

A  drinking-cup  of  perhaps  finer  shape  is  the  cantharos 
(PI.  VIII.).  It  was  the  cup  of  the  wine-god  Dionysos,  and 
ought  to  be  a  model  of  its  kind,  as  indeed  it  is.    The  twa 


Chap.  III.] 


SHAPES  OF  VASES. 


75 


handles  appear  to  have  served  for  passing  the  vase  like  a 
loving  cup.  We  have  the  same  form,  but  only  with  one 
handle,  in  the  hyathis,  which  besides  is  of  smaller  size  and 
capacity,  as  if  for  a  single  and  moderate  drinker.  A 
variety  of  the  cantharos  is  the  skyphos,  the  cup  which 
Heracles  is  mostly  represented  as  drinking  from. 

It  will  be  understood  that  we  have  here  given  only  the 
principal  and  most  permanent  forms  of  Greek  vases.1 

In  tracing  briefly  the  development  of  painted  vases, 
we  had  arrived  at  those  which  are  distinguished 
by  rows  of  animals  painted  on  a  creamy  white  slip. 
These,  we  had  seen,  were  capable  of  being  separated 
into  two  sections,  according  as  the  vacant  spaces 
among  the  animals  were  filled  in  by  geometric 
patterns  or  by  rosettes.  Before  leaving  these  vases 
altogether  it  should  be  mentioned  that  Naucratis,  a 
Greek  settlement  in  the  Delta  of  Egypt,2  has  fur- 
nished a  number  of  them,  which,  besides  being  good 
specimens  of  the  style  of  painting,  have  an  additional 
interest  from  the  dedicatory  inscriptions  incised  on 
them.  On  one  we  find  the  name  of  a  certain  Phanes, 
who,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe,  was  the  person  of 

1  For  a  full  explanation  of  the  shapes  of  vases  see  Jahn's 
Introduction  to  the  Catalogue  of  vases  in  Munich.  Since  then 
F.  Winter  has  published  an  interesting  memoir  on  the  changes  of 
fashion  in  the  shapes  of  vases,  chiefly  in  the  period  between 
440-400  B.C. 

2  See  Mr.  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie, '  Naukratis,'  Pis.  4-10 ;  cf.  p.  49. 
On  p.  4  Mr.  Petrie  contends  for  the  existence  of  Naucratis  as  a 
place  of  Greek  traders  before  the  date  of  Amasis  (b.c.  570),  who 
otherwise  is  believed  to  have  first  established  the  Greeks  there 
(Herodotus,  ii.  178).  His  argument  would  take  us  back  to  at 
least  688  b.c.  On  the  other  hand,  he  is  prepared  to  consider 
a  re-establishment  of  the  town  in  the  time  of  Psammetichos  I. 
(650-611  b.c),  or  even  in  610-600  B.c.  See  also  the  second 
Memoir  of  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund,  giving  the  results  of 
Mr.  Ernest  Gardner's  excavations  at  Naucratis. 


76      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 

that  name  of  whom  Herodotus  relates  that  he  had 
deserted  from  his  Greek  compatriots  in  Egypt,  and 
joined  the  invading  army  of  Cambyses.  On  his 
first  deserting  he  was  pursued  and  captured  in  Lycia, 
but  escaped  by  a  liberal  gift  of  wine  to  the  guards 
who  had  him  in  charge.  His  Greek  compatriots 
subsequently  made  a  cruel  retaliation.  When  the 
army  of  the  Persians  which  he  had  guided  into  Egypt, 
stood  face  to  face  with  the  Egyptian  army,  the  Greek 
mercenaries  stepped  forward  from  the  Egyptian  ranks, 
took  the  two  sons  of  Phanes,  whom  he  had  left  behind, 
slew  them  within  sight  of  their  father,  mixed  their 
blood  with  wine  in  a  vase,  and  drank  it.  It  would 
appear  from  our  inscribed  fragment  that  Phanes  had 
at  some  time  previous  to  his  desertion,  offered  an 
oblation  to  Apollo  in  Naucratis,  and  had  then 
written  his  name  on  the  vase,  handing  it  over  to  the 
priests  of  the  temple.  One  would  like  to  believe  that 
the  priests,  on  hearing  of  his  desertion,  had  cast  his 
vase  into  the  rubbish  heap  where  it  was  found. 

The  archaeological  interest  in  the  inscriptions  on  the 
Naucratis  pottery  turns  on  the  evidence  they  afford 
as  to  date.  On  this  point  absolute  agreement  has  not 
been  reached.  The  general  opinion,  however,  is  that 
the  inscriptions  cannot  be  much,  if  at  all,  older  than 
the  time  of  Amasis,  the  Egyptian  king  who  had 
assigned  Naucratis  as  a  settlement  to  the  Greeks. 
No  doubt  there  may  have  been  Greeks  settled  there 
previous  to  the  official  location  of  them  by  Amasis ; 
but  we  cannot  suppose  that  these  earlier  settlers,  if 
there  were  any,  had  temples  of  their  own,  when,  in 
fact,  Herodotus  expressly  states  that  Amasis  granted 
them  leave  to  build  temples  for  themselves  at  Nau- 
cratis.    The  pottery  found  there  is  proved  by  the 


Chap.  Ill]         ARCHAIC  PERIOD — VASES. 


77 


inscriptions  on  it,  to  have  been  dedicated  in  Greek 
temples.  Therefore  the  pottery  is  later  than  Amasis 
if  due  weight  is  to  be  attached  to  the  statement  of 
Herodotus.  In  that  case  the  vases  would  fall  in  the 
first  half  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 

We  have  noticed  on  a  previous  occasion  the  vase  from 
Naucratis,  Fig.  45,  with  its  curious  inscription,  and  may 
now  examine  more  closely  Fig.  43,  a  circular  dish  with 
rows  of  animals  in  the  style  which  wre  have  described 
as  exhibiting  Oriental  influence.  The  vacant  spaces 
are  filled  in  with  bits  of  geometric  pattern.  The 
particular  point  we  wish  to  notice  is  that  in  the  interior 
of  the  vase  is  a  form  of  rosette,  which  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  copied  from  nature  even  remotely.  The 
resemblance  to  a  rosette  seems  to  be  purely  accidental, 
and  to  have  arisen  from  merely  uniting  the  points  of 
a  star  pattern  with  curved  lines.  If  this  is  so,  and  if 
the  Greek  potters  themselves  got  so  far  in  the  develop- 
ment of  their  native  geometric  patterns,  it  is  easy  to 
see  how  they  would  readily  enough  adopt  the  Oriental 
rosette  pattern  without  thinking  that  they  were 
borrowing  anything  very  foreign,  and  without  feeling 
any  great  indebtedness  for  it.  We  should  thus  have 
an  instance  of  that  unconscious  progress  which  goes 
on  approaching  its  goal  without  quite  seeing  what 
the  goal  really  is. 

Up  to  this  point  the  vase  painters  have  neglected 
the  human  figure  as  an  element  of  decoration,  except 
in  some  rude  attempts  on  certain  vases  of  the  geo- 
metric class  found  chiefly  at  Athens,  where  they  are 
supposed  to  have  been  influenced  by  Egyptian  designs. 
As  a  rule  they  had  kept  to  rows  of  animals  and 
patterns,  steadily  gaining  new  skill  in  drawing,  and 
at  last  turning  boldly  to  the  human  figure.  An 


78       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


instance  of  one  of  their  first  efforts  in  the  treatment 
of  the  human  figure,  may  be  seen  on  a  plate  from 
Camiros,  now  in  the  British  Museum  (Fig.  47),  where 
the  picture  represents  a  combat  of  Menelaos  and 
Hector,  not  as  in  the  Iliad  (xvii.  89-105),  where 


Fig.  47. 


Pinax ;  inscribed  with  names  of  Menelaos  and  Hector  fighting  over 
the  body  of  Euphorbos.    Brit.  Mus.    Dia.  1  ft.  3  in. 


Menelaos,  having  slain  Euphorbos,  retires  at  the 
approach  of  Hector.1  Possibly  the  pair  of  human  eyes 
which  look  down  on  the  scene  are  meant  to  suggest 
the  invisible  presence  of  Apollo  on  this  occasion. 
Here  the  technical  process  is  still  to  cover  the  vase 
with  a  creamy  slip,  and  upon  that  to  paint  the  design, 
1  Kekule,  Rhein.  Mus.  1888,  p.  481. 


Chap.  III.] 


79 


filling  in  the  vacant  spaces  as  before  with  bits  of 
geometric  patterns.  The  date  of  the  writing  is  held 
to  be  the  early  part  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 

At  the  same  time  the  fashion  of  filling  in  the 
vacant  spaces  with  rosettes  as  compared  with  geo- 
metric patterns,  also  held  its  ground,  and,  indeed, 
extended  its  scope  so  as  to  produce  that  fairly  large 
class  of  early  vases  known  as  Corinthian.  A  good 
example  of  the  success  which  attended  the  Corinthian 
potters  in  this  direction,  may  be  seen  on  the  oenochoe 
Fig.  48,  on  which  the  spaces  are  filled  in  with 
rosettes ;  the  secondary  band  of  decoration  is  occupied 
with  the  traditional  rows  of  animals,  while  on  the 
main  band  is  displayed  a  battle  of  armed  men.  The 
figures  are  drawn  with  much  care  and  detail,  while  the 
composition  of  the  scene  recalls  forcibly  the  sculptured 
pediments  of  the  archaic  temple  in  iEgina. 

We  are  dealing  with  an  age  of  fighting,  and  of  pre- 
paration for  the  great  contest  with  Persia,  and  it  is  no 
wonder  if  from  this  point  onward,  for  some  time,  the 
principal  designs  on  Greek  vases  represent  combats  of 
armed  men ;  all  the  more  noticeable,  therefore,  are 
such  scenes  as  the  peaceful  act  of  offering  sacrifice  on 
Fig.  46.  More  generally  known,  and  more  interesting 
is  a  kylix  in  the  Bibliotheque  in  Paris,  representing 
the  subjects  of  King  Arkesilaos  of  Cyrene  bringing 
him  the  tribute  of  silphium,  a  plant  which  yielded 
much  of  his  revenue.  As  there  were  several  kings  of 
the  name  Arkesilaos,  we  cannot  be  certain  which  of 
them  is  here  figured.  The  forms  of  the  letters,  how- 
ever, in  which  the  name  is  inscribed,  point  to  the 
latter  half  of  the  6th  cent.  But  how  are  we  to  account 
for  a  scene  so  peaceful,  and  of  so  purely  local  a 
character  ?    There  is,  we  think,  no  doubt  that  the 


80       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


conception,  though  not  in  the  smallest  degree  the 

Fig.  48. 


Hydria.    Black  figures  on  drab  ground.    Battle.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.  2  J  in. 

execution,  had  been  borrowed  from  a  familiar  Egyptian 


Chap.  Ill  ]         ARCHAIC  PERIOD— VASES. 


81 


Fig.  49. 


design.  The  Greeks  of  Cyrene  in  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 
had  no  difficulty  of  intercourse  with  Egypt.  The 
queen  of  Amasis  was  by  birth  a  princess  of  Cyrene, 
and  in  her  time  there  was  much  coming  and  going 
between  the  two  countries. 
The  vase  in  question  is 
probably  later  than  that 
age,  though  not  a  great 
deal.  The  general  cha- 
racter of  the  drawing  on 
it  may  be  gathered  from 
the  scene  of  sacrifice  in 
Fig.  46. 

Before  leaving  the 
Greek  settlements  in  the 
Delta  of  Egypt,  we  must 
take  note  of  the  vase  in 
Fig.  49,  which  represents 
a  class  of  pottery  found 
at  Defenneh,  a  modern 
village  retaining  the 
name  of  the  ancient 
town  of  Daphnae,  which 
Herodotus  visited. 
Daphnae  had  been  a 
frontier  garrison  between 
Egypt  and  the  East.  The 
pottery  found  on  this  site 
exhibits  the  highest  technical  skill  conceivable  at  so 
early  a  date.  The  designs  painted  on  the  vases  are 
mostly  Greek,  but  the  shape  of  Fig.  49  is  distinctly 
derived  from  an  Egyptian  bronze  pitcher.  On  others 
of  the  vases  the  influence  of  the  East — at  all  events 
the  influence  of  Asia  Minor — is  quite  obvious  (see 

G 


Situla  :  Bellerophon  on  Pegasus. 
Bev. :  Chimaera.    From  Daphnse. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.. 6  in. 


82       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


Mr.  Petrie's  Memoir,  entitled '  Tanis  ii.,'  p.  70).  In  the 
Daphnse  pottery  we  get  well  into  the  region  of  Greek 
legend,  such  as  we  see  it  on  the  chest  of  Kypselos, 
and  on  works  of  archaic  Greek  art  which  in  general 
point  to  the  first  half  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C.  as  the  date 
of  their  production. 

It  is  a  question  whether  Mr.  Petrie  is  right  in 
identifying  the  site  of  Daphnse  with  the  "  Camps  " 
where  Psammetichos  I.  established  his  mercenaries 
from  Asia  Minor.  Herodotus  would  hardly  have 
given  two  names  to  one  and  the  same  place  without 
some  special  indication. 

The  art  of  the  vase  painter  had  thus  made  a  rapid 
advance  in  treating  the  human  figure,  especially  in 
observing  its  movement,  and  in  picking  up  a  facility 
in  rendering  the  details  of  costume  and  armour.  But 
it  was  still,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  stage  of  observing 
men  only  when  they  are  engaged  in  some  action  more 
or  less  violent.  In  that  stage  it  remained  some  time, 
gradually  accumulating  skill  of  hand.  At  present  we 
can  trace  this  artistic  activity  clearly  in  such  Greek 
settlements  as  those  of  the  Egyptian  Delta.  But 
probably  there  were  other  centres  also.  The  Greeks 
of  Asia  Minor  had,  from  early  times,  displayed  a 
singular  faculty  for  the  art  of  painting  in  its  higher 
walks  ;  this  natural  gift  could  hardly  but  have  re-acted 
on  the  lesser  art  of  vase-painting,  and  when  we  con- 
sider the  intimate  relations  existing  between  the 
Greeks  about  Samos,  for  example,  and  their  kinsmen 
in  Egypt,  we  may  fairly  allow  that  the  skill  of  Asia 
Minor  had  largely  operated  in  bringing  about  that 
excellence  which  we  find  in  the  pottery  from  Naucratis, 
from  Daphnse,  and  from  the  island  of  Bhodes. 

In  Greece  proper  this  particular  manner  of  vase- 


Chap.  III.]         ARCHAIC  PERIOD— VASES. 


83 


painting — imbued  with  Oriental  taste — is  associated 
mainly  with  Corinth.  The  trade  and  intercourse 
between  Samos  and  Corinth  would  sufficiently  account 
for  this  fact.  To  this  may  be  added  the  trade  with 
the  Greeks  in  Egypt.  From  Corinth  a  later  develop- 
ment of  this  style  appears  to  have  been  introduced 
into  Etruria.  How  far  the  Etruscans  may  have 
modified  it  by  their  own  peculiarities  of  taste  and 
skill,  it  is  often  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  deter- 
mine. On  many  vases  of  this  date  found  in  Etruria, 
we  see  a  rudeness  of  execution  which  we  are  inclined 
to  trace  to  a  native  Etruscan  origin,  but  cannot  posi- 
tively do  so  until  we  know  more  than  at  present  of 
the  state  of  the  art  in  the  centre  or  centres  whence 
the  Etruscans  imported  much  of  their  pottery.1 

The  next  important  step  in  vase-painting  was  accom- 
panied by  a  technical  change.  The  habit  of  painting 
in  black  on  a  white  ground  now  ceased  to  be  a  style, 
and  was  not  practised  afterwards  unless  in  certain 
exceptional  cases.  One  of  its  disadvantages  had  been 
the  perishable  nature  of  the  white  slip  which  formed  the 
ground  for  the  design.  Another,  and  perhaps  more 
serious  disadvantage  lay  in  the  too  strong  contrast  of 
black  and  white,  which  had  the  effect  of  presenting  the 
figures  like  black  silhouettes,  or  as  if  they  were  placed 
between  us  and  the  light,  the  white  ground  acting  as 
the  light.    The  new  stage  of  vase-painting  removed 

1  Diimmler,  in  '  Mittheilungen  des  Arch.  Inst,  in  Rom,'  1888, 
p.  159.  See  also  Annali  d.  Inst.  Arch.,  1885,  pi.  D.  p.  127,  where  a 
crater  found  at  Caere  is  published,  having  grotesque  figures  of  satyrs 
much  like  those  that  are  frequent  on  the  Daphnse  pottery.  The 
names  on  the  Caere  vase  are  inscribed  in  the  Corinthian  alphabet : 
OMPZ90M,  MO^AHAia^O,  MOHYa.  The  first  of  these  names 
appears  to  be  written  from  left  to  right  =  Osrikos ;  the  other  two 
read  from  right  to  left  =  Ophelandros  and  Eunous. 

a  2 


84       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


both  these  defects.  The  red  clay  of  the  vase  became 
the  ground  on  which  the  design  was  painted,  in  black 
as  before,  with  details  marked  in  by  incised  lines,  or 
expressed  in  purple  or  white,  which  latter  colour,  now 
that  it  was  released  from  forming  the  ground,  became 
available  for  indicating  the  faces,  arms,  and  feet  of 
women,  the  white  hair  of  age,  or,  it  may  be,  a  white 
horse.  But  these  additional  colours  were  not  put  on 
till  the  vase,  with  the  design  painted-in  wholly  in 
black,  had  been  first  fired  ;  they  were  then  put  on 
above  the  black,  whereupon  the  vase  was  again  fired  at 
a  lower  heat,  and  became  durable  in  a  high  degree. 
Between  the  red  colour  of  the  clay,  toned  down  as  it 
was  by  a  glaze,  and  the  lustrous  black  of  the  figures, 
there  was  a  harmonious  effect  calculated  to  throw  up 
any  detail,  however  minute,  which  might  be  bestowed 
on  the  drawing.  This  alone  was  a  great  advantage 
for  the  painter,  and  many  instances  can  be  shown 
where  his  work,  allowing  for  the  still  archaic  character 
of  the  age,  is  of  the  highest  excellence  and  charm. 

This,  as  we  have  said,  was  the  next  noticeable 
change,  viz.,  the  painting  of  the  figures  in  black 
directly  on  the  red  clay  of  the  vase.  At  the  same 
time,  the  change  was  not  brought  about  without  an 
interval  of  transition,  which  we  ought  to  observe. 
There  is  a  class  of  vases  commonly  called  Chalcidian, 
from  the  prevalence  of  the  Chalcidian  alphabet  in  the 
inscriptions  on  them.  These  vases  are  in  some  cases 
covered  with  a  brownish  slip,  so  that  the  technical 
difference  between  them  and  the  older  style  with  its 
creamy  slip  is  only  a  difference  of  colour  approaching 
more  and  more  to  the  natural  red  of  the  clay.  Others 
of  them  dispense  with  the  preliminary  slip,  and  present 
us  with  designs  painted  straight  on  the  clay.    But  it 


Chap.  III.]         AECHAIO  PERIOD— VASES. 


85 


is  to  be  remarked  in  these  cases  that  the  painter 
seems  generally  to  have  been  shocked  with  the  strong 
contrast  of  black  figures  on  a  red  ground,  and  to  have 
set  himself  to  modify  this  effect  by  covering  over  the 
larger  masses  of  his  black  colour  by  patches  of  purple 
and  white,  which  he  excuses  by  making  them  serve  to 
indicate  accessories  of  dress  and  such  like.  More 
than  this,  he  breaks  up  the  remainder  of  his  black 
masses  as  far  as  possible  by  patterns  incised  through 
them.  Further,  it  is  characteristic  of  these  Chal- 
cidian  vases  to  exhibit  very  evident  signs  of  being 
imitated  in  their  shapes  from  metal  utensils  ;  as,  for 
example,  in  the  formation  of  the  handles,  the  neck 
and  the  foot.  These  are  facts  which  go  to  prove  their 
affinity  to  the  older  style.  Their  affinity  to  the  later 
and  purely  black  figure  style  is  recognisable  in  the 
increasing  skill  they  display  in  the  drawing  of  the 
figure,  and  the  composition  of  designs. 

We  must  notice  also  a  class  of  archaic  vases  found 
in  Etruria,  chiefly  at  Caere,  as  to  which  it  is  as  yet 
difficult  to  determine  what  the  influence  was  that 
gave  them  their  peculiar  artistic  character.  In  some 
cases  that  influence  was  clearly  no  other  than  local 
Etruscan  taste,  the  vase  painter  being  an  Etruscan 
who  took  his  general  design  from  Greek  pottery  of 
the  time,  but  altered  it  as  no  Greek  could  have  done. 
It  is  assumed  that  the  Etruscans  had  acquired  some 
skill  of  this  kind  from  the  Corinthian  potters  who 
settled  among  them,  but  it  is  not  believed  that  this 
art  suited  their  tastes  or  gifts.  Undoubted  Etruscan 
vases  with  painted  designs  are  not  numerous,  and 
they  are  constantly  bad.  The  vases  in  question,  how- 
ever, do  not  nearly  descend  to  this  degree  of  mis- 
applied talent.    We  may  take,  as  an  example,  a  vase 


86       HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


in  Berlin,  known  as  the  Amphiaraos  vase  (engraved  in 
the  Mon.  dell'  Inst.,  x.  Pis.  4,  5).  Some  claim  it  to 
be  a  direct  import  from  Corinth  into  Etruria  (Robert, 
Annali  dell'  Inst.,  1874,  p.  110).  Others  again,  bearing 
in  mind  that  the  Etruscans  had  certainly  imported 
painted  vases  from  the  Greek  potters  resident  in  the 
Delta  of  Egypt,  whether  by  way  of  Corinth  or  not,  are 
inclined  to  recognise  this,  and  other  vases  of  similar 
style,  as  having  been  influenced  by  Greek  potters  in 
Egypt,  if  not  actually  made  by  them.  The  presence 
of  figures  of  negroes  on  one  of  these  vases  seems  to 
support  this  view. 

We  pass  now  to  the  regular  black  figure  ware,  that 
is,  vases  with  figures  painted  in  black  on  the  red  clay, 
the  black  being  in  places  softened  down  by  purple 
and  white  accessories,  and  by  lines  incised  through 
the  black  to  indicate  the  inner  markings  of  anatomy 
or  of  costume.  Fig.  50  is  one  of  these  vases.  Its 
shape  is  that  of  an  amphora.  For  some  time  the 
vase-painters  had,  it  appears,  lost  sight  of  this  shape 
except  on  rare  occasions.  Nevertheless,  it  had  enjoyed 
much  popularity  in  the  early  geometric  style.  Heue 
we  find  it  revived  with  much  favour. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  eye  of  the  citharist  is 
circular,  and  it  may  here  be  pointed  out  that  the  rule  of 
the  black  figure  vases  is  to  represent  the  eyes  of  men 
as  circular,  those  of  women  in  an  almond  shape  (see 
Fig.  51).  But  this  distinction  was  not  much  observed 
in  the  early  art  of  Asia  Minor,  as  we  see  in  the  pottery 
of  Naucratis,  Daphnse,  and  Camiros,  where  Asiatic 
influence  was  felt;  there  the  almond-shaped  eye  is 
conspicuous  in  men  as  in  women. 

In  general,  the  old  habit  of  employing  rows  of 
animals  to  cover  the  secondary  places  of  a  vase  has 


Chap.  III.]  AKCHAIC  PERIOD— BLACK  FIGURE  VASES.  87 


not  always  been  shaken  off,  but  on  vases  where  it 
has  been  retained  it  has  been  pushed  into  as  much 

Fig.  50. 


Amphora  :  black  figure  on  red  ground.  Citharist.  Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.  3J  in. 

obscurity  as  possible,  that  is  to  say,  to  a  narrow 


88       HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


border  along  the  foot  of  the  main  design,  and,  indeed, 
the  animals  are  mostly  drawn  with  an  obvious  want  of 
intelligence  and  spirit.  Proportionately  the  main 
design  has  become  enlarged,  so  as  to  occupy  the  best 
part  of  the  vase.  This  larger  scale  of  the  figures  was 
in  itself  calculated  to  evoke  greater  freedom  in  the 
drawing,  and  if  that  result  did  not  follow — as  in  fact 
it  did  not — we  must  blame  the  rigidity  of  the  traditions 
under  which  the  art  still  laboured.  Obviously  a  black 
figure  standing  flat  against  a  red  ground,  like  a 
silhouette,  could  not  but  provoke  the  painter  to  enliven 
it  with  inner  markings  of  incised  lines,  and  with 
accessories  of  purple  and  white,  thus  continuing  the 
traditional  habit,  and  thus  missing  the  opportunity  of 
greater  freedom  in  his  contours,  the  possibility  of 
which  is  obvious  in  modern  silhouette  drawings,  where 
great  expression  is  attained.  Such  was  the  case  for  a 
while,  but  gradually  we  notice  a  healthier  sign  in  a 
number  of  vases  where  the  accessories  of  purple  and 
white  are  dispensed  with,  or  nearly  so,  and  only  the 
inner  markings  of  anatomy  and  costume  retained. 
There  we  see  a  very  distinct  approach  to  largeness  of 
style,  as  well  as  actual  largeness  of  figure. 

As  regards  the  subjects  represented  on  the  black 
figure  vases,  that  is  a  question  on  which  we  will  not 
enter  further  than  to  say  that  they  are  mostly  legends 
of  heroes,  with  a  fair  admixture  of  deities.  They 
could  not  be  better  compared  than  with  the  Odes  of 
Pindar,  where  also  we  have  ever  present  the  rich 
legendary  lore  of  Greece.  Neither  Pindar  nor  the 
vase-painters  of  this  stage  cared  to  represent  too 
closely  the  life  of  their  own  clay.  They  were  apt  to 
run  off  with  the  heroic  legends,  and  no  doubt  that 
was  the  mental  tendency  of  the  age. 


Chap.  III.]  AKCHAIC  PEKIOD — BLACK  FIGUKE  VASES.  89 


It  may  be  said  that,  in  the  whole  range  of  ancient 
pottery,  there  is  no  class  more  transparently  honest 
than  these  reel  vases  with  black  figures  (Fig.  50).  The 
red  is  simply  the  colour  of  the  clay ;  the  vases  do  not 
pretend  to  be  anything  but  clay  ;  they  imitate  nothing, 
and  yet,  for  some  reason — perhaps  because  of  their 
very  honesty  of  purpose — they  did  not  long  retain 
favour.  They  were  soon  superseded  by  vases  on 
which  only  a  red  panel  was  left,  much  as  on  Fig.  51, 
on  which  the  figures  were  painted  as  before  in  black, 
the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the  vase  being  covered  over 
with  a  black  metallic  glaze.  In  this  style  the  vases 
are  often  large  and  heavy,  the  leading  shapes  being 
the  amphora  and  the  hydria.  On  most  of  them  there 
is  no  perceptible  change  for  the  better  in  the  matter 
of  drawing.  Still  there  are  a  number  of  remarkable 
exceptions.  We  may  take  Fig.  51  as  an  instance.  It 
is  the  design  on  a  hydria,  painted  by  Panphaeos,  whose 
name  it  bears,  the  design  representing  the  wine-god 
Dionysos,  attended  by  satyrs  and  maenads.  Below 
this  is  a  border  of  animals,  drawn  without  spirit  or 
truthfulness,  yet  with  a  certain  delicacy  in  the  flow  of 
lines,  apart  from  their  significance  or  want  of  signi- 
ficance. Of  the  main  design  it  must  be  allowed  that 
it  is  full  of  most  delicate  details,  which  it  would  be 
difficult  not  to  admire.  These  details  are  finely 
drawn,  beyond  cloubt,  and  if  the  purpose  of  the  painter 
was  to  produce  a  mere  piece  of  decoration,  without 
spirit  or  life,  but  exquisite  apart  from  these  qualities, 
he  may  be  admitted  to  have  succeeded  admirably. 
Unquestionably  that  was  the  purpose  of  Panphaeos, 
and  others  of  his  contemporaries,  whose  works  still 
exist.  Nor  can  we  say  that,  in  taking  this  view  of 
their  art,  they  were  absolutely  wrong.    They  were 


Chap.  III.]  ARCHAIC  PERIOD — BLACK  FIGURE  VASES.  91 


right  in  their  search  after  a  refined  decorative  effect, 
and  if  they  chose  to  employ  the  human  figure  to  this 
end,  they  cannot  be  blamed  for  that.  But  they  can 
be  blamed  justly  for  not  having  seen  that  the  human 
figure  was  capable  of  being  much  better  employed, 
with  more  truthfulness  to  its  natural  forms  and  move- 
ments. It  is  true  that  the  age  was  not  yet  ripe  for 
this  higher  view,  and  it  is  a  comforting  reflection 
that  the  very  excesses  of  Panphaeos  and  others,  in 
their  straining  after  refinement  and  decorative  effect, 
were  the  best  possible  means  of  irritating  the  public 
taste,  and  inducing  a  bolder  and  freer  spirit  among 
the  vase  painters. 

It  is  in  keeping  with  the  tastes  of  these  painters 
that  they  were  fond  of  signing  their  names  on  the 
vases  in  pretty  large  letters  or  otherwise  ostentatiously. 
And  here  it  is  right  that  we  should  notice  the  theory 
of  Brunn,  that  these  vase  painters  did  not  live  in  the 
beginning  of  the  5th  cent.  B.C.,  as  is  commonly 
supposed,  but  were  in  fact  a  race  of  imitators  who 
lived  two  centuries  after  that  date,  and  who  may  be 
considered  as  standing  towards  the  genuinely  early 
painters  much  as  the  pre-Baphaelite  Brotherhood 
of  our  generation  stood  to  the  true  pre-Baphaelite 
painters.1  They  traded,  argues  Brunn,  on  a  false 
taste  of  their  time  for  the  refined  art  of  the  archaic 
age,  just  as  in  sculpture  from  time  to  time  down 
to  the  age  of  Hadrian,  attempts  were  made  to  revive  a 
fictitious  taste  for  archaic  art.  But  sculpture,  it  is  to 
be  remembered,  never  ceased  to  be  prosecuted  as  an 

1  H.  Brunn,  'Probleme  in  der  Geschichte  der  Vasen-Malerei,' 
Munich,  1871.  Since  then  he  has  further  developed  his  theory 
with  reference  to  the  painted  vases  found  in  excavations  at  the 
Certosa  of  Bologna . 


92       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


art,  whereas  vase-painting,  so  far  as  our  knowledge 
goes,  was  driven  out  of  existence  by  the  wealth  and 
the  passion  for  metal  vases  which  characterized  the 
Alexandrian  age.  The  last  stage  of  the  potters  was, 
as  we  shall  see,  to  imitate  the  reliefs  on  metal  vases, 
and  to  cease  from  painted  designs.  If  the  facts  were 
not  so,  we  would  be  strongly  tempted  to  see  with 
Brunn  in  works  like  the  vase  of  Panphseos,  evidence 
not  only  of  false  taste — that  we  admit — but  of  an 
attempted  revival  of  archaic  art  in  a  later  age. 

The  mention  of  Panphaeos  leads  us  to  notice  here 
such  of  the  vases  bearing  the  signatures  of  artists  as  are 
older  or  at  least  contemporary  with  him.  There  must 
have  been  some  end  to  be  gained  by  these  signatures. 
There  must  have  been  buyers  to  whom  the  signatures 
afforded  a  guarantee  of  exceptional  value,  to  say 
nothing  of  a  possible  professional  pride  on  the  part 
of  the  painters.  The  custom  can  be  traced  back 
to  about  600  B.C.  We  have  given  on  PI.  III.,  a  vase 
signed  by  Aristonofos  of  about  this  date.  The  vases 
of  this  early  class  have  been  collected  in  an  excellent 
form  by  Benndorf  (<  Vorlegeblatter,'  1888).1  Taken  in 
historical  order  the  names  may  be  placed  thus : 
Aristonofos,    Timonidas,     Chares     and  Milonidas 

1  A  new  vase  from  Boeotia,  now  in  the  Louvre,  has  been  described 
by  E.  Pottier,  in  the  *  Gazette  Archeol.,'  1888,  p.  4.  The  name  is 
Menaidas.  In  this  article  M.  Pottier  has  made  a  considerable 
number  of  additions  to  Klein's  *  Vasen  mit  Meistersignaturen,'  2nd 
ed.  So  also  the  painter  Sophilos  has  become  better  known  by  the  re- 
covery of  several  fragments  belonging  apparently  to  the  vase  of  which 
only  a  part  bearing  his  name  was  previously  known.  The  subject 
so  far  as  it  exists  resembles  a  scene  on  the  Francois  vase  and  repre- 
sents Hermes  followed  by  two  groups  of  goddesses  named  HEZTIA 
(Hestia),  Al  .  .  .  TEP  (Demeter),  VETO  (Leto)  and  XAPI(?VO 
(Chariclo).  The  execution  also  resembles  that  of  the  Francois 
vase  (<  Mittheilungen  d.  Inst.  Arch.  Athen.,'  1889,  PI.  1,  p.  1). 


Chap.  III.]  AKCHAIC  PEEIOD — BLACK  FIGURE  VASES.  93 


(Corinthians),  Theozotos,  Gamecles  and  Menaiclas 
(Boeotians),  (Ecopheles,  Clitias  and  Ergotimos, 
iSTearchos,  Exekias,  Nicosthenes,  Amasis,  Archicles 
and  Glaukytes,  Skytkes,  Timagoras,  and  lastly 
Panphseos,  who  began  to  work  also  in  the  red  figure 
style,  though  not  with  much  success.  We  have 
mentioned  here  the  chief  of  the  early  vase  painters, 
and  to  be  more  particular  we  should  call  attention  to 
the  work  of  Timonidas  and  Theozotos  as  excellent 
representatives  of  the  somewhat  rude  yet  forcible 
art  of  their  day.  Later  on,  but  still  in  the  archaic 
black  figure  manner,  we  are  amazed  at  the  fertility  of 
invention,  the  rich  abundance  of  legendary  scenes 
and  motives  which  we  find  on  the  famous  Francois 
vase  in  Florence,  bearing  the  names  of  Clitias  and 
Ergotimos,  one  the  painter,  the  other  the  potter. 
The  designs  on  it  will  be  found  in  Benndorfs 
'  Vorlegeblatter,'  just  cited.  There  also,  on  PI.  4, 
are  given  some  pieces  of  what  has  been  a  beautiful 
archaic  vase  bearing  the  signature  of  the  painter 
Nearchos,  whose  sons  Tleson  and  Ergoteles  are  known 
from  several  specimens  of  their  work  in  vase  painting. 
But  they  are  unequal  to  their  father,  whose  name, 
apart  from  his  skill,  has  of  late  years  been  brought  into 
notice  by  the  finding  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens  of  a 
marble  pedestal,  which,  judging  from  the  inscription  on 
it,  had  supported  some  object — whether  a  statue  or  not 
— provided  by  Nearchos  as  a  tithe  out  of  the  profits  of 
his  works  ('  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  141).  The  inscription 
says  further  that  the  sculpture  which  had  stood  on 
this  vase  was  the  work  of  Antenor,  son  of  Eumares.1 
With  this  sculptor  we  propose  to  deal  afterwards. 

1  Pliny,  he.  cit.9  calls  him  Eumarus;  but  it  would  seem  from 
the  inscription  (C.  I.  A.,  IV.,  Suppl.  37391)  that  Eumares  is  the 


94       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


Meantime  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  his  father 
Euniares  was  an  Athenian  painter  known  to  us  from 
Pliny  (xxxv.  36),  and  accredited  with  a  certain  in- 
ventiveness in  the  art  of  painting.  It  is  clear  from 
several  other  inscribed  pedestals  found  on  the  Acro- 
polis under  circumstances  which  possibly  make  them 
older  than  the  Persian  invasion  in  480  B.C.,  that  it 
had  been  a  habit  to  dedicate  there  painted  vases. 
We  have,  for  example,  the  names  of  Euenor,1  probably 
of  the  same  family  as  Eumares,  Nesiades,  and  above 
all,  Euphronios  (<  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  144).  It  would 
be  pleasant  to  think  that  Athenian  taste  in  those 
times  had  recognised  the  great  charm  of  vases  by 
men  like  Euphronios,  and  had  placed  them  on  the 
Acropolis  for  all  to  see.  But  there  is  some  difficulty 
in  understanding  how  these  vase  painters  could  have 
attained  so  much  excellence  in  drawing,  and  so  great 
freedom  in  composition  at  a  time  when  as  yet  sculp- 
ture was  far  behind,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  examples 
of  it  found  on  the  Acropolis  under  the  same  circum- 
stances as  the  inscribed  records  of  the  vase  painters. 
No  doubt  there  is  archaism  in  the  work  of  Euphronios 
and  his  contemporaries,  but  that  could  be  explained 
without  actually  placing  those  painters  in  a  pre- 
Persian  epoch. 

By  that  time  the  old  black  figure  style  had  been 
quite  abandoned,  except  for  special  purposes,  and  had 
given  place  to  the  red  figure  vases,  not,  however, 
without  some  few  memorable  exceptions  on  the  part 
of  Euphronios  and  others.    The  exceptions  we  refer 


right  form.  The  inscription  is  there  read :  'Avrrjvwp  eVfofyo-ej/]  6 
JLvpapovs  r[6  ayakfxa. 

1  C.  I.  A.,  IY.  Suppl.  37386  and  37388. 


Chap.  III.]  RED  FIGURE  VASES — EARLY  STYLE.  95 


to  consist  of  vases  which  are  first  covered  with  a 
creamy-white  slip,  and  when  this  is  dry  a  design  is 
then  painted  on  it  in  outline  with  a  fine  brush,  and 
with  a  large  ideal  conception  of  the  human  form  such 
as  is  associated  with  the  great  fresco  painters  of  the 
age  of  Polygnotos.  A  convenient  example  will  be 
found  in  the  Bale  kylix  in  the  British  Museum, 
representing  Hephsestos  and  Athena  finishing  the 
making  of  Pandora.1 

W.  Klein,  in  the  second  edition  of  his  '  Euphronios,' 
has  made  an  elaborate  study  of  the  works  of  this 
painter,  to  which  may  be  added  the  observations  of 
Studniczka  ('  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  161),  and  the  sub- 
sequent memoir  by  Klein  ('Vasen  mit  Lieblings- 
inschriften/  1890),  in  connection  with  the  pet  names 
Leagros  and  Glaucon,  which  Euphronios  and  others 
sometimes  inscribed  on  their  vases.  It  has  been 
argued  that  these  pet  names,  to  which  the  vase 
painters  added  the  epithet  /caXos,  were  the  names  of 
persons  popular  at  the  time  for  youth  and  beauty. 
On  this  principle  the  name  Leagros  is  identified 
with  that  of  the  Athenian  general  in  a  battle  467  B.C. 
(Herodotus,  ix.  75),  who  might  have  been  a  youth 
in  Athens  popular  for  his  beauty  about  thirty  years 
before  then,  say  497  B.C..  Leagros  had  a  son  named 
Glaucon,  who  commanded  at  Corcyra,  B.C.  432  (Thucyd. 
i.  51),  and  the  name  of  Glaucon  on  later  vases  may 
refer  to  him.  Where  it  occurs  on  older  vases  it  may 
refer  to  the  father  of  this  Leagros  who  also  bore  the 
name  of  Glaucon. 

Leagros  as  a  pet  name  is  found  sixteen  times  on 
vases,  which  otherwise  would  be  judged  from  their 


1  Lenormant  et  De  Witte,  *  Mon.  Ceram.,'  III.  pi.  44. 


96       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


style  to  belong  to  about  the  date  of  the  Athenian 
general.  On  a  vase  in  Oxford  is  a  figure  of  a  Persian 
archer  mounted  on  a  horse  and  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  Miltiades  /ca\6<;,  the  style  of  painting  being 
that  of  Epictetos.  It  is  argued1  that  the  Persian 
archer  and  the  name  of  Miltiades  point  clearly  to  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  whence  a  reasonable  date  for  the 
vase,  and  therefore  also  for  the  period  of  Epictetos  and 
his  school,  would  be  after  480  B.C.  Another  interesting 
name,  that  of  Hipparchos,  is  used  by  Epictetos  and 
several  other  painters  who  do  not  sign  their  names. 
The  name  is  one  which  was  for  long  detested  by  the 
Athenians.  It  was  the  name  of  that  son  of  the  tyrant 
Peisistratos  whom  the  Athenians  slew  B.C.  510  (Herod, 
v.  55;  vi.  123),  and  whose  slaughter  they  recorded  in 
a  public  work  of  sculpture,  and  in  a  popular  song. 
But  clearly  the  painter  Epictetos  could  not  well  have 
been  a  contemporary  of  both  Miltiades  and  Hipparchos, 
and  since  the  later  date  derived  from  the  Miltiades  vase 
is  the  preferable  of  the  two,  we  must  suppose  that  he 
meant  by  Hipparchos  some  later  person  of  the  name. 

The  finding  of  inscribed  pedestals  on  the  acropolis 
of  Athens,  on  which  occur  with  apparently  equal 
conspicuousness  the  names  of  vase  painters  an(j  0f 
others  whom  our  literary  records  have  taught  us 
to  regard  as  painters  of  a  higher  order,  has  led  to 
a  re-investigation  of  these  records  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  vase  painters.  Our  literary  source  in 
this  matter  is  Pliny  (Nat.  Hist.  xxxv.  5  and  34). 
It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  first  name 
he  mentions  is  one  Philocles,  whom  he  calls  an 
Egyptian,  doubtless  a  Greek  resident  in  the  Delta. 

1  Klein,  '  Gr.  Yasen  mit  Lieblingsinschriften,'  publishes  this 
Oxford  vase  as  frontispiece.    See  also  pp.  15-16. 


Chap.  III.]  BED  FIGURE  VASES — EARLY  STYLE. 


97 


In  another  passage  he  speaks  of  a  painter  Bularchos 
in  Asia  Minor  of  the  time  of  the  Lydian  king 
Candaules.  Then  he  passes  to  Corinth,  naming  several 
painters  there,  of  whom  he  mentions  two  as  using 
hardly  any  colour,  but  as  still  spargentes  lineas  intus, 
and  as  adding  the  names  of  the  persons  represented. 
No  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  phrase  here  quoted 
has  been  found.  But  if  we  are  to  compare  the  work 
of  these  men  with  the  early  Corinthian  pottery,  then 
we  might  suggest  this  explanation,  that  the  phrase  is 
meant  to  apply  to  the  habit  of  filling  in  the  spaces 
around  the  figures  with  rosettes  as  well  as  with  names, 
such  as  we  have  already  seen  to  have  been  the  case  on 
the  vases.  Pliny  appears  to  associate  these  painters 
with  the  Kypselidae  of  Corinth,  7th  cent.  B.C. 

Passing  on  (xxxv.  34),  he  notices  the  Athenian  painter 
Eumares,  whom  we  now  know  to  have  been  the  father 
of  the  sculptor  Antenor,  and  says  that  he  was  the 
first  to  distinguish  men  from  women  in  his  paintings, 
apparently  by  painting  the  flesh  of  women  white  and 
giving  them  almond  eyes,  as  compared  with  the  round 
eyes  of  men  on  the  black  figure  vases.  It  is  proposed, 
therefore,  to  class  Eumares  with  Clitias  and  Ergotimos, 
the  authors  of  the  Francois  vase  in  Florence,  about 
the  time  of  Solon  ('  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  148).  Eumares 
was  succeeded  and  surpassed  by  Cimon  of  Cleonae, 
who  introduced  catagrapha,  hoc  est  obliquas  imagines 
et  varie  formare  vultus,  respicientes,  suspicientes  vel 
despieientes.  Articulis  membra  distinxit,  venas  prohdit. 
prseterque  in  veste  et  rugas  et  sinus  invenit.  It  is 
proposed  to  compare  with  Cimon  of  Cleonge  the  vase 
painters  Epictetos  and  the  others  who  with  him  are 
believed  to  have  introduced  the  red  figure  style. 
It  may  not  be  clear  what  Pliny  means  by  catagrapha 

H 


98       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


or  oblique  imagines,  and  by  his  statement  as  to  facial 
expression.  Still  the  reference  to  drapery,  veins  and 
joints,  with  his  precision  in  treating  them,  recalls  the 
manner  of  Epictetos  not  inadequately.  Possibly  also 
it  was  Epictetos  who  introduced  the  habit  of  making 
the  eyes  of  men  and  women  alike  of  a  nearly  almond 
shape — a  habit  which  lasted  throughout  the  severe  red 
figure  style. 

The  next  great  advance  in  vase  painting  was  that 
of  Euphronios  and  his  school.  Keeping  to  the  red 
figure  style  they  sought  for  greater  largeness  and 
ideality  of  forms.  In  this  respect  they  seem  to 
have  been  influenced  by  the  great  fresco  painter 
Polygnotos  and  his  contemporaries,  and  this  is  the 
more  evident  on  those  vases  where  they  painted  their 
designs,  at  all  events  the  designs  on  the  interiors,  on 
a  white  ground,  as  we  have  already  mentioned. 
One  of  the  characteristics  of  Euphronios  is  to  give 
his  figures  very  large  noses.  Like  his  contemporaries, 
he  makes  the  eyes  of  men  and  women  alike,  in  some 
cases  rendering  the  cornea  by  a  circle  with  a  dot  in  the 
centre,  a  habit  which  Duris  very  regularly  indulges. 
The  usual  rendering  is  a  round  black  spot  for  the 
cornea.  The  bold  largeness  of  style  of  Euphronios  is 
in  striking  contrast  to  the  elegance  of  detail  and 
tendency  towards  small  expressive  figures  in  the  works 
of  Duris  and  Cachrylion,  while  Hieron  again  tries  to 
revert  to  a  simple  large  style  in  his  figures.  But 
Hieron,  though  retaining  a  large  style  in  his  figures, 
does  not  share  with  Euphronios  and  some  others 
the  freedom  and  boldness  of  composition  which 
distinguish  their  vases  from  the  general  formality  of 
older  times,  in  which  the.  composition  is  carefully 
balanced,  one  half  against  the  other  half.    A  great 


Chap.  III.]  RED  FIGURE  VASES — EARLY  STYLE. 


99 


proportion  of  the  signed  vases  are  in  the  shape  of 
kylikes,  of  which  PL  V.  will  serve  as  an  example. 
We  give  here  a  list  of  the  vase  painters  who  followed 
on  after  Panpkaeos,  with  whom  our  previous  list  con- 
cluded: (1)  Andokides,  (2)  Thypheithides,  (3)  His- 
chylos,  (4)  Epictetos,  (5)  Epilycos,  (6)  Sicanos,  (7) 
Chelis,  (8)  a  series  of  vases  with  the  pet  name  of 
Memnon,  but  unsigned,  (9)  Cachrylion,  (10)  a  series 
of  vases  with  the  pet  name  of  Leagros,  but  unsigned 
(11)  Oltos  and  (12)  Euxitheos,  (13)  Euphronios,  (14) 
Euthymicles,  (15)  Sosias,  (16)  Amasis  II.,  (17)  Pis- 
toxenos,  (18)  Duris,  (19)  Hieron,  (20)  Brygos,  (21) 
Polygnotos,  (22)  Xenophantos,  (23)  Meidias,  (24) 
Xenotimos,  (25)  Assteas,  and  a  few  others  less  known.1 
This  habit  of  signing  vases  was  at  its  height  during 
the  transition  period,  when  the  black  figure  style,  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking,  was  running  a  natural 
course  towards  mannerism  and  affectation  of  refine- 
ment, and  when  the  next  stage  of  red  figures  on  a 
black  ground  had  not  as  yet  obtained  a  firm  footing. 
This  view  of  the  case  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that 
certain  of  these  painters  worked  in  both  manners,  as 
did  Panphseos,  for  example.  Further,  it  is  apparent 
that  some  of  those  who  worked  exclusively  in  the  new 
red  figure  style,  as  for  example  Epictetos,  preserved 
the  stiff,  elaborate  manner  of  drawing  which  had 
characterized  the  older  black  figure  style,  while  others 
again,  like  Euphronios  varied  largely  in  their  manner, 
like  men  who  were  seeking,  but  had  not  yet  mastered 

1  Benndorfs  and  Conze's  '  Vorlegeblatter,'  give  excellent  illus- 
trations of  Duris  (1874-5),  of  Duris  and  Brygos  (1876),  of  Eu- 
phronios (1873),  of  Hieron  (1879),  of  Assteas  (1880),  and  of  Oltos 
and  Euxitheos  (1884).  We  have  already  referred  to  the  illustra- 
tions of  the  archaic  vase  painters  in  the  *  Vorlegeblatter.' 

H  2 


100     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap  III. 


the  freedom  of  conception  and  of  drawing  which  the 
new  style  opened  up.  It  is  true  that  when  this 
freedom  had  been  once  attained  there  were  painters 
who  still  continued  the  habit  of  signing  their  names ; 
for  example,  Brygos,  whose  vases  are  full  of  free  and 
masterly  drawing,  still  later,  Meidias  and  others.  But 
these  exceptions  only  show  the  force  of  habit,  all  the 
more  so  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  favourite  shape 
of  vase  with  these  painters  was  the  kylix,  on  which 
above  all  other  shapes  the  custom  of  signing  had  been 
handed  down.  By  comparison,  it  is  only  occasionally 
that  signed  vases  occur  after  this  date,  until  we  reach 
the  last  stage  of  pottery  in  the  3rd  and  2nd  cent.  B.C., 
when,  as  we  have  said,  vases  with  reliefs  imitated  from 
silver  vessels  came  into  favour,  and  when  the  new- 
fashion  justified,  if  it  did  not  call  for,  the  addition  of 
the  name  of  a  man  who  was  known  to  excel  in  work  of 
the  kind. 

We  have  been  led  to  anticipate  the  next  important 
step  in  the  development  of  vase  painting.  It  has 
been  seen  that  during  the  period  of  the  black  figure 
style  a  change  had  been  made  from  the  honest  red 
vase,  with  its  black  figures.  We  have  seen  that  the 
entire  vase  was  next  covered  with  a  black  glaze, 
except  for  a  panel  which  was  left  red,  and  on  which 
the  designs  were  painted  in  black  as  before.  This 
change  evidently  found  favour,  for  from  this  time 
forth  Greek  vases  were  as  a  rule  covered  with  this 
black  metallic  glaze,  except  where  the  design  was  to 
be.  With  the  larger  vases  then  coming  into  use 
some  such  limitation  of  the  space  for  the  design  was 
obviously  an  advantage  to  the  artist.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  still  trammelled  by  the  squared-off  space 
in  which  he  had  to  work,  and  above  all  by  the  system 


Plate  Y. 


Face  p.  100. 


Chap.  III.]     RED  FIGURE  VASES — BEST  STYLE.  101 


of  figures  filled  in  with  black,  and  the  inevitable 
temptation  to  counteract  the  masses  of  black  by 
details  in  the  inner  markings  and  in  accessories. 
What  he  needed  was  a  change  of  system  in  which 
these  lines  of  details  should  no  longer  be  secondary, 
and  more  or  less  optional,  but  should  be  leading  and 
essential  lines.  This  was  obtained  by  making  the 
figure  stand  out  in  the  red  colour  of  the  clay,  by 
surrounding  it  closely  with  a  black  glaze,  and  by 
drawing  in  the  whole  of  the  markings  of  anatomy, 
and  other  details  with  a  fine  brush  loaded  with  black 
glaze.  The  painter  would  think  twice  before  he  used 
his  brush,  because  a  fault  would  spoil  his  figure  in 
quite  a  different  degree  from  a  fault  in  the  older 
manner.  We  can  still  see  his  anxiety  in  this  respect, 
for  on  many  of  the  best  red  figure  vases  it  is  easy  to 
trace  the  preliminary  drawings  which  the  artist  had 
sketched  on  the  vase — not  with  his  brush,  but  with 
a  fine  ivory  tool  which  left  a  visible  line  on  the  soft 
clay.  We  can  see  how  he  corrected  these  lines  over 
and  over  again  before  finally  taking  his  brush  and 
drawing  them  in  with  black.  It  is  generally  sup- 
posed that  the  best  part  of  an  artist's  work  is  done 
before  he  takes  his  brush  or  clay  in  hand ;  it  is  done 
by  preliminary  thinking  and  planning.  If  that  is  so, 
then  the  very  method  of  working  involved  in  the  new 
system  of  vase  painting,  was  such  as  to  favour  and 
encourage  this  careful  preliminary  study.  Hence  it 
was  that  the  art  reached  its  highest  excellence  in  the 
red  figure  age. 

The  change  to  red  figures  appears  to  have  taken 
place  about  the  time  of  the  Persian  wars.  Greek  art 
was  henceforward  free.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  free 
within  certain  limits.  The  vase  painter  could  not  place 


102     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


his  figures  up  and  down  on  his  vase.  He  must  still 
dispose  them  more  or  less  as  tradition  prescribed.  He 
must  keep  also  to  the  class  of  subjects  which  tradition 
had  handed  down.  But  within  these  limits  he  found 
a  wide  scope  for  freedom,  and  used  it  well.  You  may 
often  see  on  vases  of  the  best  quality  a  number  of 
figures  which  at  first  sight  appear  to  be  repetitions, 
the  one  of  the  other.  But  looking  more  attentively 
at  them  you  will  recognise  an  almost  incredible 
variety  in  the  secondary  movements,  and  an  amount 
of  artistic  invention  which  conveys  the  purest  delight 
to  those  who  watch  it,  and  seek  to  give  it  its  due. 
On  no  vase  that  we  knowT  of  is  this  more  beautifully 
illustrated  than  one  in  the  form  of  a  knuckle-bone, 
found  in  ^Egina,  and  now  in  the  British  Museum.1 
The  subject  is  a  dance  of  girls,  in  which  they  are  being 
instructed  by  an  old  man. 

The  red  figure  style  appears  to  have  owed  much 
at  its  commencement  to  the  contemporary  fresco- 
painters,  and  this  is  particularly  noticeable  in  a  class 
of  large  amphorae  where  the  painters  have  obviously 
been  aiming  at  the  largeness  of  manner  which  is 
associated  with  the  frescoes  of  Polygnotos  and  his 
immediate  followers  (Pis.  VI.,  VII.).  Apart  from 
largeness  of  manner  the  figures  on  these  amphorae  are 
actually  much  larger  than  is  usual  on  Greek  vases. 
Not  unfrequently  there  is  an  ungainly  want  of 
freedom  of  movement,  and  a  striking  failure  in 
attaining  the  true  and  accurate  proportions  of  the 
figure.  The  aim  was  to  conceive  a  human  figure  of 
an  ideal  mould  transcending  the  ordinary  type  with 
its  accuracies  and  its  neatness.    These  large  simple 

1  Very  imperfectly  given  in  Stackelberg,  '  Graber  der  Hellenen,' 
PI.  23. 


Plate  VI. 


Amphora.    Apollo  and  two  Muses.    (Brit.  Mus.) 
lit.  1  ft.  11  in. 


Face  p.  102. 


Plate  VII. 


Cup.    Dancing  to  Music.    (Brit;  Mus.)    lit.  s  in. 

Amphora.    Dionysos  Sacrificing.    (Brit,  Mus.)    Ht.  1  ft.  6  in. 


Face  p.  102. 


Plate  VIII. 


1.  Cantharos.    Death  of  Orestes  at  Altar  of  Delphi.    (Brit.  Mus.)  Ht.  6|  in. 

2.  Crater.    Victorious  Citharist.    (Brit.  Mus.)    Ht.  1  ft.  6  in. 

Face  p.  102. 


Plate  IX. 


Vase  in  form  of  Sphinx.    Round  the  Cup,  Erichthonios,  Kekrops  and 
his  Daughters.    From  Capua.    (Brit.  Mus.)    Ht.  llf  in. 


Chap.  III.]  ATHENIAN  LEKYTHI. 


103 


figures  were  the  result.  It  was  soon  perceived,  how- 
ever, that  inaccuracy  in  the  proportions  was  not  at  all 
necessary  to  largeness  of  manner.  Pheidias  taught 
that,  in  his  sculpture,  and  the  vase  painters  soon 
learned  the  lesson  of  accuracy  (PL  VIII.).  At  the 
same  time  in  learning  it  they  undoubtedly  lost  much 
of  the  strong  ideal  effect  which  had  been  their  glory, 
and  gradually  passed  on  to  a  stage  of  pure  beauty 
of  form  and  accuracy  of  detail. 

At  this  point  we  may  notice  again  the  Athenian 
lekythi,  of  which  we  have  already  had  occasion  to 
speak,  and  of  which  PL  IV.  is  an  example.1  They  are 
interesting  technically  because  of  the  designs  being 
drawn  on  a  ground  prepared  with  a  white  colour. 
The  designs  are  drawn  chiefly  in  outline,  and  often 
with  an  extremely  fine  brush,  though  of  course  there 
is  also,  as  was  to  be  expected,  on  vases  produced  to 
meet  the  unexpected  needs  of  death  and  funeral 
ceremonies,  much  rough  and  rude  workmanship.  But 
the  general  effect  may  be  held  to  give  us  on  a  small 
scale  a  fair  notion  of  the  work  of  the  great  fresco- 
painters.  In  both  cases  the  first  necessity  was  a  bold 
unerring  outline.  A  line  once  drawn  must  remain ; 
there  was  no  chance  of  correcting  it ;  though  indeed 
on  inferior  specimens  such  corrections  can  be  seen 
often  enough. 

With  these  lekythi  may  be  classed  a  very  beauti- 
ful vase  in  the  form  of  a  sphinx  (PL  IX.).  The 
unusual  fact  of  the  sphinx  being  painted  white  recalls 

1  An  extremely  interesting  memoir  on  vases  of  this  class  is  that 
of  E.  Pottier,  '  Etude  sur  les  Lecythes  blancs  Attiques,'  1883,  with 
4  plates.  See  also  Benndorf's  'Griech.  und  Sicil.  Vasenbilder,' 
especially  PL  33  with  a  deathbed  scene,  Pis.  26  and  34,  mourners 
at  a  tomb,  and  PI.  27,  Charon  in  his  boat.  ' 


104     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


the  special  taste  of  the  lekythi  painters,  while  the 
subject  round  the  cup  equally  betrays  an  Athenian 
origin.  The  forms  of  the  sphinx  are  slightly  archaic, 
but  the  red  figure  drawing  belongs  to  the  best  age. 

It  is  seldom  that  the  date  can  be  fixed  to  a  year  of 
any  particular  Greek  vase  or  class  of  vases.  We  are 
all  the  more  fortunate  in  possessing  some  of  which 
this  can  be  said;  we  refer  to  the  series  of  prize 
amphorae  (PL  X.)  obtained  at  the  Panathenaic  games 
at  Athens,  and  conveyed  thence  by  the  winners  to 
their  home  in  Cyrene  or  elsewhere.  The  dates  of 
these  amphorae  in  the  British  Museum  range  from  B.C. 
368-333  ;  and  we  have  thus  a  series  of  paintings  which 
may  not  only  teach  us  the  progress,  or  decline, 
accomplished  during  a  certain  period,  but  also  be  a 
standard  by  which  to  judge  backwards  and  forwards. 
You  will  see  from  the  example  given  in  PL  X.  that 
there  is  no  longer  much  question  of  refinement  or 
delicacy  of  drawing.  It  is  more  like  the  work 
produced  while  practising  facility  in  drawing  the 
figure  ;  it  is  an  illustration  of  the  average  skill  of 
the  day. 

On  the  other  hand  it  is  only  right  to  observe  that 
the  painters  of  these  prize  amphorae  had  to  work 
under  difficulties :  the  manner  of  filling  in  their 
figures  with  black  colour,  was  a  manner  which  had 
long  ceased,  except  in  this  particular  class  of  vases, 
where  it  was  traditional  and  compulsory.  Then  again 
it  may  be  judged  from  the  general  level  above  which 
the  drawing  on  these  vases  never  rises,  that  no  effort 
was  made  to  obtain  the  services  of  specially  talented 
painters  if  there  were  any.  But,  all  this  considered, 
it  is  beyond  doubt  that  by  the  year  333  B.C.  Greek 
vase-painting  had  become  a  thing  of  the  schools,  to  be 


Plate  X. 


Face  p.  104. 


Chap.  III.]  BED  FIGURE  VASES — LATER  STYLE.  105 


learnt  up  to  a  certain  point  of  facility  in  drawing  the 
human  figure,  and  not  much  else.  After  this  there  is 
little  from  Greece  itself  that  is  noticeable.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Greeks  of  Southern  Italy  did  not  yet 
yield  so  completely.  We  have  from  that  quarter  a 
series  of  Apulian  vases,  as  they  are  called,  which  is 
not  only  numerically  large,  but  embraces  a  number 
of  vases  of  great  size,  obviously  intended  for  display 
at  funeral  ceremonies.  Frequently  the  design 
represents  a  tombstone  with  an  ideal  figure  of  the 
deceased,  and  mourning  friends  bringing  offerings. 
At  times  the  drawing  of  the  figures  is  large,  and  fine 
in  style,  reminding  one  of  the  state  of  art  about 
400  B.C. 

Mostly,  however,  it  is  a  good  deal  later  than  this, 
and,  in  not  a  few  instances,  is  a  complete  caricature 
oi  Greek  art.  Curiously  enough  a  love  of  actual 
scenes  of  caricature  is  common  on  these  later  vases ; 
scenes  from  the  comic  stage  are  frequent,  as  in  the 
Fourth  Vase  Room  of  the  British  Museum,  where 
in  several  cases  it  runs  into  disagreeable  grotesque- 
ness.  Again,  there  are  scenes  such  as  that  of 
Odysseus,  Diomede,  and  Dolon,  on  a  vase  in  the 
British  Museum,  or  Heracles  in  his  madness  setting 
fire  to  his  household  goods,  and  about  to  throw  his 
infant  on  the  fire,  which  are  not  represented  as  on  the 
stage,  but  yet  betray  a  taste  for  more  or  less  grotesque 
incidents  on  the  part  of  the  painters.  The  latter  vase 
is  signed  by  the  painter  Assteas,  who  is  reckoned 
among  the  last  of  the  painters  who  inscribed  their 
names  on  their  works.  To  the  same  class  belongs  the 
large  crater  in  the  British  Museum  representing 
Alcmena,  who  has  taken  refuge  on  an  altar  to  escape 
the  anger  of  her  husband  Amphitryon.    But  he,  with 


106     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


the  help  of  Antenor,  has  heaped  before  the  altar  a 
pyre  of  wood,  which  they  set  about  lighting.  Alcmena 
appeals  to  Zeus,  who  appears,  partially  visible  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  vase,  and  first  hurls  two  thunder- 
bolts at  Amphitryon  and  Antenor,  and  next  sends  a 
great  shower  of  rain  to  put  out  the  pyre.  The  shower 
is  indicated  by  a  rainbow  enclosing  a  space  which  is 
thickly  dotted  with  drops  of  rain,  and  by  two  Hyades 
above  the  rainbow,  who  pour  water  from  vases  down 
on  the  pyre.  The  names  of  the  persons — except  the 
Hyades — are  inscribed  on  the  vase,  as  is  also  that  of 
the  painter  Python.  It  is  probable  that  this  subject 
had  been  treated  in  this  manner  in  the  lost  drama  of 
Alcmena,  by  Euripides.  It  is  certain  that  the  later 
vase  painters  had  frequent  recourse  to  his  plays. 

In  examining  the  large  class  of  vases  of  the  strictly 
Apulian  class,  it  will  be  noticed  that  there  is  a 
marked  love  of  floral  ornament  on  the  necks  and 
handles ;  but  this  spirit  is  carried  farther  than  at  first 
sight  appears,  and  in  a  curious  direction.  On  a  large 
series  of  them  we  see  a  habit  of  putting  in  a  rosette 
on  vacant  places  in  the  design,  as  if  the  horror  of 
vacant  spaces  which  influenced  the  archaic  vase 
painters  had  been  revived  in  a  measure.  At  times  it 
would  seem  as  if  it  had  been  a  law  to  put  at  least  one 
small  rosette  in  somewhere  on  the  vase. 

So  also  in  regard  to  some  other  patterns  such  as  the 
wave,  they  seemed  to  have  been  seized  upon  by 
certain  classes  of  painters,  and  are  in  fact  often  the 
mark  of  special  methods  of  painting.  The  wave- 
pattern,  for  instance,  is  a  very  common  accom- 
paniment of  a  series  of  these  latest  vases,  in  which  the 
figures,  instead  of  standing  out  in  the  brilliant  red  of 
the  older  vases,  appear  in  a  dull  colour,  as  if  the  vase 


Chap.  III.]  RED  FIGURE  VASES — LATER  STYLE.  107 


itself  were  made  of  some  inferior  clay  ;  very  often 
these  figures  are  painted  over  in  white  colour. 

Before  reaching  this,  its  last  stage,  vase-painting 
struck  out  in  one  direction  which  deserves  notice.  It 
was  no  easy  matter  to  produce  a  red  figure  vase, 
except  for  a  painter  well  trained  to  the  special  work. 
A  simpler  method  was  to  take  a  plain  black  vase  and 
paint  a  design  on  it  in  a  red  colour,  with  some 
medium  which  fixed  it,  in  a  measure,  on  to  the  black 
below.  Some  few  examples  of  this  method  exist  from 
a  fairly  early  time ;  but  they  are  not  executed  with 
the  same  attention  and  success  as  are  the  later 
specimens.  Among  those  latter  is  one  in  the  British 
Museum  representing  Ganymede,  as  it  seems  :  the 
figure  is  finely-modelled,  the  roundness  of  the  limbs 
being  shown  by  shadows  formed  by  hatched  lines,  and 
by  white  colour  to  indicate  the  high  lights. 

The  restraint  which  Greek  artists  imposed  on 
themselves  is  never  more  conspicuous  than  when  we 
remember  that  of  the  vast  multitude  of  painted  vases 
still  existing,  only  a  very  few  separate  classes  can  be 
made  out.  At  a  distance  the  majority  of  the  vases 
resemble  each  other,  like  the  majority  of  men.  But 
on  closer  inspection,  how  infinite  the  differences  !  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  painters  had  followed  nature  in 
her  method  of  adhering  to  a  type  which  has  once  been 
found  perfectly  suitable,  and  yet  encouraging  endless 
variety  in  the  individuals. 

Yet  occasionally  the  Greek  potter  departed  from 
his  regular  types  in  search  of  something  unusual. 
A  very  successful  example  of  that  is  to  be  seen  in 
the  vase  in  shape  of  a  sphinx  already  referred  to, 
in  PI.  IX.  But,  with  all  his  success  in  this  and 
in  some  other  similar  experiments,  the  temptation 


108     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


was  not  sufficient  to  lead  the  potter  out  of  his  regular 
way. 

Lastly  we  need  do  no  more  than  glance  at  a  series 
of  vases  for  which  also  the  potter  invited  the 
assistance  of  the  sculptor  or  modeller,  rather  than  the 
painter.  We  mean  those  vases  of  black  ware  on  which 
were  attached  designs  modelled  in  relief,  occasionally 
with  the  addition  of  a  floral  ornament  from  the  hand 
of  a  painter.  Contemporary  with  them  are  vases  of 
the  same  order  of  black  ware,  but  with  a  figure 
painted  in  white,  or  white  with  purple  or  yellow, 
over  the  black  glaze.  These  vases  of  black  ware  with 
designs  in  relief  begin  to  date  from  the  3rd  or  2nd 
cent.  B.C.,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  continued  in 
use  down  to  Imperial  Eoman  times,  when  they  were 
finally  superseded  by  the  red  moulded  ware  familiarly 
known  as  Samian  and  Aretine  (from  the  ncient 
potteries  at  Arezzo).  A  general  belief  that  this 
black  ware  had  been  a  substitute  among  poorer  people 
for  the  rich  vases  of  silver  which  wealthy  men  could 
alone  possess  has  lately  been  proved  by  the  finding  at 
Eoquemaure  in  France  of  two  silver  dishes  of  the  shape 
known  as  phiale  mesomphalos,  which  have  been  em- 
bossed with  reliefs  almost  identical  with  those  on  two 
black  ware  phialse  in  the  British  Museum.  The  two 
latter  are  duplicates  from  the  same  mould,  and  repre- 
sent the  apotheosis  of  Heracles  in  four  groups,  each  with 
a  Victory  driving  a  quadriga  to  the  left.  In  each  group 
she  is  accompanied  by  a  different  deity  ;  (1)  Athene, 
(2)  Heracles,  (3)  Ares,  (4)  Dionysos.  Each  group  is 
separated  by  a  small  Eros  in  the  air  and  by  an 
emblem  of  the  deity  in  the  chariot  that  follows : 
before  the  chariot  with  Athene  is  a  winged  serpent, 
before  Heracles  a  hind  (?),  before  Ares  a  boar,  and 


Chap.  III.]     VASES  WITH  MOULDED  DESIGNS. 


109 


Dionysos  a  kid.  On  one  of  the  two  silver  phialse 
from  Koquemaure  we  have  five  similar  groups  of 
Victory  driving  a  quadriga  to  the  left  with  (1)  Athene, 
(2)  Heracles,  (3)  Ares,  (4)  Hermes,  (5)  Dionysos,  the 
Erotes  and  emblems  being  omitted.  On  the  other 
silver  phiale  we  have  four  groups  of  Victory  driving 
with  (1)  Athene,  (2)  Heracles,  (3)  Apollo,  (4)  Dionysos,. 
but  with  the  difference  that  there  is  in  each  group  an 
additional  Victory  near  the  heads  of  the  horses.  The 
style  of  this  later  phiale  is  much  finer  than  the  other 
or  than  those  in  the  black  ware. 

Akin  to  ware  of  this  class  are  the  bowls  with 
external  reliefs  representing  scenes  from  the  Trojan 
war,  from  the  dramas  of  Euripides  and  other  sources, 
with  the  names  of  the  characters  or  indications  of  the 
scenes  frequently  inscribed  on  them.  A  fine  series 
of  these  vases  with  Trojan  subjects,  now  in  Berlin,  has 
been  published  lately  by  Prof.  C.  Robert  in  a  most 
interesting  memoir,1  which  he  begins  by  referring  to 
the  incident  when  Nero,  on  the  day  preceding  his 
murder,  and  in  surprise  at  the  news  of  the  revolt  of 
the  army,  which  had  been  brought  to  him  at  dinner, 
upset  a  table  with  two  favourite  bowls,  which  he 
called  "  Homeric,"  because  of  the  subjects  embossed 
on  them. 

This  rapid  outline  is  no  more  than  an  introduction 
to  a  vast  subject,  and  that  an  introduction  mainly  to 
its  technical  side.  We  have  hardly  dared  to  touch 
upon  the  designs  on  the  vases  from  the  point  of  viewr 
in  which  they  reveal  the  painters  as  men  who  shared 
in  the  thought  of  their  contemporaries  in  matters  of 
legend  and  myth,  men  who  in  this  respect  joined 

1  Homerische  Becher,  Winckelmann's  Festprogramm,  1890,  pp. 
1-96. 


110     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


hands  with  the  poets  and  sculptors  of  their  day.  It  is 
for  the  student  now  to  take  that  point  of  view;  for 
the  ultimate  charm  of  the  vases  lies  just  where  they 
reflect  poetic  thought,  not  where  they  present  us  with 
a  scene  familiar  in  .ZEschylus,  Sophocles,  or  Euripides, 
though  that  is  interesting  too  ;  but  where  we  recognise 
them  to  be  moving  along  lines  parallel  to  those  of  the 
great  poets. 

As  an  interesting  example  of  comparative  study  in 
this  direction  we  may  mention  a  memoir,  in  which  is 
discussed  the  position  of  Eros,  the  god  of  love,  in 
literature  and  on  the  vases.1  Among  the  early  poets 
it  is  curious  to  observe  how  with  some,  Eros  is  merely 
the  passion  of  love,  while  in  others  he  is  a  distinct 
personality.  In  archaic  vases  the  personality  of  Eros 
is  conspicuously  absent.  It  is  only  with  the  red  figure 
vases  he  comes  into  play.  He  was  known  to  Pheidias, 
and  appeared  prominently  on  the  base  of  the  statue 
of  Zeus  at  Olympia.  It  was  left  to  Praxiteles  to 
develop  him  fully ;  possibly  it  was  in  his  time  that 
the  attribute  of  a  bow  was  assigned  to  him  ;  the  bow 
is  rare  on  vases  but  frequent  in  later  sculpture. 

Or  we  may  compare  the  painted  vases  with  the 
early  Epic  poets.  Taking  the  vases  in  the  three 
classes  of  archaic  (or  black  figure),  red  figure,  and 
Apulian,  we  find,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in  much 
detail,2  that  in  all  these  periods  Epic  poetry  exercised 
a  powerful  influence,  that  the  influence  of  the  tragic 
poets  did  not  begin  to  operate  till  the  red  figure  style, 
and  that  the  lyric  and  Alexandrine  poetry  had  no 

1  Furtwaengler,  '  Eros  in  der  Vasen-Malerei.' 

2  H.  Luckenbach,  fi  Das  Verhaltniss  der  Griech.  Vasenbilder  zu 
den  Gedichten  des  epischen  Kyklos'  (Jahrbucher  fur  Class. 
Philologie,  Suppl.  vol.  ii.,  pp.  453-637). 


Chap.  III.] 


SUBJECTS  ON  VASES. 


Ill 


apparent  influence.  Among  many  instances  of  the 
relation  of  archaic  vases  to  the  Epic  poets  there  is  the 
scene  of  the  chariot-race  on  the  famous  Francis  vase  in 
Florence.1  Compared  with  the  description  of  the  games 
at  the  funeral  of  Patroclos  in  the  Iliad,  there  are  re- 
markable differences.  The  race  is  run  with  quadrigae, 
not  with  bigse,  such  as  the  Homeric  heroes  mostly  used  ; 
and  the  names  of  the  competitors  are  not  those  of  the 
Iliad.  But  at  the  date  when  this  vase  was  painted  the 
chariot-race  at  Olympia  was  run  with  quadrigso.2 

Or,  again,  the  student  will  find  an  inviting  subject 
in  those  personifications  of  phenomena  in  the  natural 
and  spiritual  worlds  which  are  not  unfrequent  on  the 
vases,  as  M.  Pottier  has  lately  shown.3  It  is  interest- 
ing to  observe  how  certain  compositions,  such  as 
Heracles  strangling  the  Nemean  lion  or  wrestling  with 
Nereus  had  almost  worked  themselves  out  in  the 
archaic  or  black  figure  period.  It  would  seem  as  if 
the  rigidity  with  which  the  painters  adhered  in  these 
cases  to  one  unvarying  type  must  naturally  have  led  in 
time  to  an  abandonment  or  nearly  so  of  the  particular 
conception  from  the  mere  force  of  monotony.  But 
meantime  the  painters  were  acquiring  skill  in  drawing 
all  the  better  for  avoiding  novelty  or  variety  of  design. 

In  the  large  number  of  instances,  where  we  find  a 
particular  design  repeated  over  and  over  again,  it 
would  be  instructive  to  collect  tracings  from  the  vases, 
to  reduce  all  the  tracings  to  one  scale  and  then  super- 
impose them,  so  as  to  find  out  which  of  the  tracings 
has  most  in  common  with  the  rest — in  other  words, 
which  of  them  is  the  greatest  common  measure,  so  to 

1  Mon.  dell'  Inst.  Arch.,  iv.,  Pis.  54-58. 

2  The  quadriga  was  introduced  at  Olympia  in  Olymp.  25,  the 
biga,  Olymp.  53.    Pausanias,  v.,  8,  7,  and  10. 

3  Monuments  Grecs  (1889-90),  p.  1. 


112     HANDBOOK  OF  OEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  111. 


speak,  of  the  rest.  We  should  thus  find  out  also 
whether  a  vase  painting  which  proves  to  be  a  greatest 
common  measure  of  its  class  is  also  one  which  would 
in  general  be  regarded  as  beautiful  of  its  kind. 

On  the  black  figure  vases  most  of  the  figures  repre- 
sent grown  up  persons — the  men  are  generally  bearded 
and  rigid  in  attitude  and  action.  On  the  red  figure 
vases  youth,  suppleness  of  action  and  gaiety  abound. 
The  short  bodies  and  long  legs  of  the  archaic  age 
change  to  the  more  just  proportions  of  men  brought 
up  in  freedom  and  comfort,  as  they  were  after  the 
Persian  wars.  As  a  special  instance  of  affectation  in 
rendering  human  proportions  we  may  notice  a  class 
of  black  figure  amphorae  (Brit.  Mus.  B.  25,  26,  27,  35, 
45)  frequently  called  "  Tyrrhenian."  The  extremities 
of  the  figures  are  attenuated  to  an  absurd  degree,  re- 
minding us  strongly  of  the  bronze  cuirass,  Fig.  52, 
which  also  has  a  Tyrrhenian  or  Etruscan  character. 
For  the  rest  these  vases  are  marked  by  elaborately 
careful  drawing,  together  with  rich  costumes  studded 
with  rosettes  of  white  spots  and  purple  disks.  The 
composition  of  the  groups  is  rigid  and  formal  with  a 
love  of  balance  and  upright  lines. 

Again  the  history  of  costume  is  a  subject  which  can 
be  studied  better  on  the  vases  than  on  other  remains 
of  the  Greeks  (PL  XL).  Doubtless  on  the  vases  we 
lose  the  bright  colours  of  the  dresses  in  actual  use, 
such  as  we  see  them  on  the  archaic  marble  statues  on 
the  acropolis  of  Athens,  and  such  as  we  read  of  in  the 
inscriptions  which  record  the  presents  of  dresses  made 
by  Athenian  girls  in  the  temple  of  the  Brauronian 
Artemis.1  For  instance,  the  inscriptions  speak  of  ■  A 
himation  with  a  broad  purple  border  of  wave-pattern 

1  See  Anc.  Greek  Inscriptions  in  Brit.  Mus.,  No.  34,  and 
C.  I.  Gr.,  155 ;  C.  I.  A.,  ii.,  76i. 


Chap.  III.] 


COSTUME  ON  VASES. 


113 


all  round/  or  '  A  girl's  chiton,  with  plain  border  of 
purple  that  has  been  washed  out.'  These  instances 
refer  to  the  second  half  of  the  4th  cent.  B.C.  From 
that  elate  onward  there  was  apparently  little  or  no 
change  of  fashion.  The  typical  Greek  costume,  such 
as  we  see  it  constantly  reproduced  in  modern  works,  had 
become  established.  In  earlier  times,  however,  there 
had  been  a  good  deal  of  change.  One  particular 
occasion  of  change  has  been  rendered  memorable  by  a 
23assage  of  Herodotus  (v.  87)  in  which  he  tells  how  on 
the  news  of  a  disaster  in  iEgina,  the  Athenian  women 
used  the  sharp  points  of  the  pins  or  fibulae,  with 
which  their  dresses  were  fastened,  to  kill  the  man 
who  brought  the  evil  tidings.  Whereupon  it  was 
ordained  that  they  should  change  the  Dorian  dress 
(made  of  wool,  and  fastened  with  fibulae),  which  they 
had  hitherto  worn,  for  the  Ionic  linen  chiton,  which 
needed  no  fibulae  (Jva  Srj  irepovrjat  /jltj  ^picovrat). 
This  happened  about  540  B.C.  What  is  here  called 
the  Dorian  dress  was  common,  adds  Herodotus,  to  the 
whole  of  Greece  in  archaic  times. 

It  is  believed  that  the  fibula  was  unknown  to  the 
ancient  Oriental  nations.  Doubtless  they  wore  linen 
principally,  like  their  modern  representatives  ;  on  the 
other  hand  the  climate  of  Europe  made  woollen 
garments  indispensable,  and  equally  the  use  of  fibulae 
in  primitive  times.  They  are  found  everywhere  among 
the  prehistoric  remains  of  Europe,  and  the  inference  is 
that  the  fibula  was  a  purely  European  invention.  On 
the  evidence  of  Herodotus  it  remained  in  use,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  Greece  down  to  about  540  B.C.,  and  this 
is  confirmed  by  the  finding  of  bronze  fibulne  with 
pottery  of  nearly  this  date  in  Boeotia  and  in  Rhodes.1 

1  Studniczka,  in  the  c  Mittheilungen  aus  Athen/  xii.  p.  8,  claims 

I 


114    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  III. 


No.  3,  from  the  Francois  vase,  shows  how  the  fibula 
was  employed  about  this  time  to  fasten  the  dress  on 
the  shoulders  ;  No.  6  represents  the  change  to  the 
Ionic  chiton,  with  sleeves,  and  a  fold  falling  over  the 
girdle,  but  without  fibular1  The  name  for  the  women's 
garment  which  was  fitted  on  to  the  body  of  the  wearer, 
either  by  fibula  in  early  times,  or  by  seams  in  later 
times,  was  the  chiton,  with  its  varying  forms  of 
chitonion  and  chitoniskos.  For  warmth  on  the 
breast  and  shoulders  the  chiton  could  be  doubled  over 
so  as  to  fall  down  to  the  waist  (diploidion),  or  this 
piece  might  be  made  separate  and  fastened  on  at  the 
shoulders  (Nos.  3,  11,  13).  The  chiton  was  gathered 
in  round  the  waist  with  a  girdle,  and,  if  too  long,  could 
be  drawn  up  under  the  girdle  and  let  fall  over  it  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent,  according  to  taste  (Nos.  6,  9, 
13, 16).  The  illustrations  (PI.  XI.)  will  show  the  gradual 
changes  ;  they  show  also  the  changes  that  occurred  in 
the  upper  garment,  which  wras  worn  thrown  round  the 
body  like  a  shawl  (periblema),  by  men  equally  as  by 
women  on  the  archaic  vases.  By  the  end  of  the  5th 
cent.  B.C.  this  upper  garment  had  given  way  to  the 
himation,  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  later  art  on 
figures  of  men  and  women  alike.  The  chlamys  worn 
by  young  men,  and  fastened  on  the  right  shoulder, 
was  a  variety  of  the  himation. 

that  the  absence  of  fibulae  from  the  tombs  at  Mycenae  proves  these 
tombs  to  be  Pre-Dorian.  I  think  the  presence  of  fibulae  would  have 
been  better  suited  to  that  purpose.  In  any  case  we  could  not 
well  expect  fibulae  and  swords  in  the  same  set  of  tombs.  Warriors 
would  not  wear  fibulae. 

1  These  and  the  following  figures  are  taken  from  the  interesting 
memoir  of  Boehlau,  *  Quaes tiones  de  re  vestiaria  Graecorum,'  and 
from  Studniczka's  e  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  d.  altgriech.  Tracht,' 
1886. 


PLATE  XI. 


12.  13.  14.  15.  16. 

The  Principal  Female  Costumes  from  Primitive  Times  to  the 
1st  Cent.  h.c. 

[To  face  p.  114. 


Chap.  Ill  ] 


COSTUME  ON  VASES. 


115 


As  regards  the  costume  of  men,  there  is  an  im- 
portant passage  in  Thucydides  (i.  6),  to  the  effect  that 
in  insecure  early  times  the  Greeks  carried  arms  on 
every  occasion,  like  barbarians,  and  that  the  Athenians 
were  the  first  to  take  up  a  more  refined  manner  of  life  ; 
among  the  rich  the  older  men  took  to  wearing  linen 
chitons,  and  having  their  hair  braided  and  fastened 
with  golden  pins  in  the  form  of  a  grasshopper.  As  an 
illustration  of  this,  we  have  an  incident  in  the  life  of 
Theseus,  related  by  Pausanias  (i.  19,  1).  While 
workmen  were  engaged  on  the  temple  of  Apollo 
Delphinios  at  Athens,  and  had  got  as  far  as  the  roof 
of  the  building,  Theseus  appeared  on  the  scene ;  the 
workmen,  observing  that  he  wore  a  long  chiton 
reaching  to  his  feet,  and  had  his  hair  carefully 
braided,  thought  proper  to  make  fun  of  his  appear- 
ance, saying  "  here  is  a  young  lady  fit  for  marriage 
walking  alone."  Whereupon  Theseus  unloosed  some 
oxen  from  a  cart  standing  by,  and  threw  the  cart,  or  part 
of  it,  higher  than  where  the  roof  of  the  temple  was  to  be. 
It  was  the  Lacedaemonians  who  first  set  themselves 
against  this  luxury  of  apparel,  and  introduced 
moderation.  Nothing  is  plainer  in  the  history  of 
Greek  costume  than  that,  when  the  early  semi- 
barbarous  times  had  been  got  over,  a  reaction  set  in 
towards  over-refinement  of  manners  and  dress.  For  a 
while,  indeed  down  to  the  Persian  wars,  the  ruling 
goddess  was  Charis,  or  "  Grace." 

DESCRIPTION  OF  PLATE  XL 

No.   1.  From  a  gold  ring  found  at  Mycenae.    Studniczka,  Fig.  8. 
Primitive  period. 
„     2.  From  a  vase.     Studniczka,  Fig.  10.     Probably  7th 
cent.  b.c. 

i  2 


116     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCELEOLOGY     [Chap.  III. 


No.  3.  From  the  Francois  vase  in  Florence.  Probably  6th 
cent.  B.C. 

„  4.  From  a  vase.  Boehlau,  Fig.  9.  Chiton,  diploidion  on 
breast,  and  himation  worn  as  a  shawl.    6th  cent.  b.c. 

„  5.  From  a  Cypriote  vase.  Studniczka,  Fig.  41.  Possibly 
6th  cent.  B.C. 

„     6.  From  a  vase.    Boehlau,  Fig.  4.    6th  cent.  B.C. 

„     7.  Pattern  of  chiton  with  diploi'dion.    Studniczka,  Fig.  1. 

From  5th  cent.  B.C.  onwards. 
„     8.  Pattern  of  chiton.    Studniczka,  Fig.  7.    From  5th  cent. 

b.c.  onwards. 

„  9.  From  a  vase.  Boehlau,  Fig.  12.  Chiton,  with  diploidion 
falling  over  girdle,  and  a  scarf  over  shoulders, 
480  b.c 

„  10.  From  a  vase.  Boehlau,  Fig.  21.  This  dress,  characteristic 
of  the  end  of  the  6th  and  beginning  of  the  5th  cent,  b.c, 
consists  of  a  chiton,  only  visible  on  one  shoulder  and  at 
the  feet ;  over  it  a  himation,  which  is  folded  over  along 
the  top  like  a  diplois,  and  falls  in  long  ends  or  pteryges. 
500  b.c 

„   11.  Statue  from  Herculaneum,  showing  how  the  chiton  was 

put  on.    Studniczka,  Fig.  4.    400  b.c 
„   12.  From  a  vase.    Studniczka,  Fig.  2.   Chiton  with  diploidion 

open  down  the  right  side.    440  b.c 
„   13.  Caryatid  of  Erechtheum.    Boehlau,  Fig.  29.    Chiton  with 

fold  over  girdle  and  diploidion  on  breast.    420  b.c 
„   14.  From  a  vase.    Boehlau,  Fig.  31.    Under-chiton  reaching 

to  feet ;  over  it  a  short  chiton  or  chitoniskos.    420  b.c 
„   15.  From  Thasos  relief  in  the  Louvre.    Studniczka,  Fig.  20. 

Chiton  with  chlamys  over  it  folded  nearly  double.  500  b.c 
„   16.  Statue  of  Diana  from  Gabii.  Studniczka,  Fig.  21.  Putting 

on  a  himation,  which  is  folded  like  a  chlamys,  over 

a  chiton  girt  at  the  waist  and  under  the  breasts. 

1st  cent,  b.c 


(    117  ) 


CHAPTEB  IV. 

DESIGNS  INCISED  ON  BRONZE. 

Allowing  for  the  difference  of  material,  the  artist 
who  incised  a  design  on  bronze  would  bring  to  his 
task  much  the  same  qualifications  as  a  painter  of  a 
vase.  Like  the  painter  he  had  to  rely  mainly  on 
accuracy  of  outline.  He  might  indeed,  if  he  preferred 
a  rich  effect  of  colour  to  pure  drawing,  have  recourse 
to  the  process  of  gilding,  or  plating  parts  of  his  design 
with  silver  or  gold.  The  richly-plated  daggers  found 
at  Mycenae  illustrate  the  prevalence  of  such  a  taste 
in  early  times,  while  again  it  is  almost  a  characteristic 
of  the  latest  incised  designs  to  be  plated  over  with 
silver.  So  that  at  the  two  extremes  in  the  history  of 
this  art,  the  love  of  bright  colour  overpowered  the 
gifts  of  drawing,  much  as  in  the  history  of  vase- 
painting. 

Or  again,  if  we  take  the  subjects  represented  in 
incised  designs,  we  shall  find  them  frequently  pre- 
senting the  closest  resemblance  to  designs  painted  on 
vases.  An  incised  design  was  from  its  nature  suited 
only  for  a  small  and  limited  surface ;  it  would  not  be 
visible  on  a  large  scale.  Whatever  could  be  held  in 
the  hand,  such  as  a  mirror-case  or  a  mirror,  was  the 
best  field  for  its  display ;  and  thus  appealing  to 
private  enjoyments  like  the  art  of  vase-painting,  it 


118     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


made  the  same  choice  of  subjects,  and  followed  the 
same  method  of  representing  them. 

As  compared  with  what  was  to  be  expected,  the 
number  of  incised  designs  on  bronze  that  have  been 
found  in  Greece  is  small.  For  the  most  part  they  have 
been  obtained  at  Corinth,  and  belong  to  a  period  not 
earlier  than  400  B.C.  To  some  extent  this  scarcity  may 
be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  Corinth,  which  had 
been  a  principal  centre  of  bronze  work,  became  after 
its  capture  by  the  Komans,  as  it  is  to-day,  an  active 
and  profitable  scene  for  those  who  made  it  their 
business  to  ransack  her  tombs  for  the  pottery  and 
bronzes  (necro-Corinthia)  they  contained  (Strabo,  c. 
381).  An  amusing  illustration  of  the  passion  for 
Corinthian  vases  of  metal  is  given  by  Petronius 
(Sat.  50).  Trimalchio,  the  type  of  a  new-made  man, 
thinks  it  a  fine  joke  to  claim  that  his  vases  must  be 
true  Corinthia,  because  he  purchased  them  from  a 
smith  named  Corinthus.  Then  he  is  afraid  of  being 
thought  ignorant  of  the  true  meaning  of  Corinthia, 
and  proceeds  to  tell  how  at  the  taking  of  Troy,  a 
wretched  fellow,  called  Hannibal,  heaped  all  the 
statues  of  bronze,  gold,  and  silver  together  and  made 
a  fire  of  them.  After  a  short  digression  about  vases 
of  glass  and  the  man  who  because  he  had  made  a  glass 
vase  that  would  not  break,  was  beheaded  by  the 
emperor  so  that  the  secret  might  die  with  him, 
Trimalchio,  explains  with  delightful  confusion  some 
of  the  subjects  that  were  figured  on  his  silver  vases, 
e.g.,  Cassandra  slaying  her  children,  the  bdead  boys 
lying  so  natural  that  you  would  think  them  alive.  On 
another  vase  was  to  be  seen  Daedalus  putting  Niobe 
into  the  Trojan  horse  !  But  to  return  to  sober  fact. 
Almost  every  specimen   of  this  art  that  has  yet 


Chap.  IV.l     INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


119 


been  obtained  in  Greece,  has  been  excavated  at 
Corinth.  And  if  we  may  suppose  the  ransacking  of 
the  tombs  that  goes  on  now  to  be  but  fitful  as  compared 
with  the  industry  of  the  spoilers  in  ancient  times, 
some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  loss  that  has  been 
sustained. 

Apart  from  the  general  scarcity  of  these  designs 
from  Greece,  there  remains  to  be  accounted  for  the 
particular  scarcity  of  specimens  older  than  about 
400  B.C.  That  can  hardly  be  a  mere  accident.  For 
if  we  examine  the  extensive  series  of  designs  incised 
on  bronze,  which  the  Etruscans  have  left  us,  we  shall 
find  there  also  comparatively  few  that  belong  to  the 
archaic  age.  It  may  be  assumed,  therefore,  as  regards 
Greece,  that  this  art  was  not  practised  to  any  great 
extent  in  the  archaic  period,  but  that  it  rose  into 
repute  about  400  B.C.,  under  the  influence  of  the  love 
of  pure  drawing  which  then  dominated  the  great 
schools  of  painting  in  Corinth  and  Sikyon. 

But  if  Greece  has  yielded  comparatively  few  speci- 
mens of  this  art,  what  shall  be  said  of  the  great 
numbers  of  bronze  mirrors  with  incised  designs  that 
have  been  found  in  Etruria,1  or  of  bronze  cist^e 
similarly  decorated,  that  have  been  obtained  at  the 
ancient  town  of  Prseneste  in  Latium  ?  Apparently 
the  Etruscans  in  their  search  for  luxury  had  encouraged 
the  production  of  such  works  to  a  far  greater  extent 
than  the  Greeks. 

But  in  matters  of  originality  we  have  been  taught 
to  look  to  Greece,  and  specially  to  Corinth.    It  is  not 

1  Gerhard's  '  Etruskische  Spiegel'  contains  429  plates,  many  of 
which  give  two  or  more  mirrors,  and  this  number  has  been  largely 
increased  by  the  supplement  to  that  work  now  being  issued  by  the 
German  Archaeological  Institute. 


120    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IY. 


now  regarded  as  a  fiction  that  in  the  7th  cent.  B.C. 
certain  artists  who  found  life  in  Corinth  unbearable 
from  the  tyranny  of  its  ruler,  emigrated  to  Etruria 
and  established  themselves  and  their  art  there.  In- 
stead of  considering  the  names  of  Eucheir  and 
Eugramnios,  which  tradition  assigned  to  these  artists, 
to  be  sufficient  proof  of  the  fictitiousness  of  the  story, 
as  used  to  be  the  case,  we  now  know  positively  that 
such  names — indicative  more  or  less  of  the  occupations 
of  the  men — did  exist  in  early  Greece,  and  having 
ascertained  this  we  are  perhaps  apt  to  go  to  the  other 
extreme  of  claiming  for  Greece  a  greater  artistic 
influence  in  Etruria  than  is  her  due.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  there  is  no  question  but  that  from  the  end  of  the 
7th  cent.,  all  through  the  6th,  and  part  of  the  5th 
centuries,  B.C.,  an  active  intercourse  in  matters  of  art 
was  carried  on  between  Greece  and  Etruria.  The 
contents  of  Etruscan  tombs  make  this  quite  clear. 
Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  extensive  importation 
of  painted  vases,  first  from  Corinth,  then  from  Athens, 
which  is  proved  by  the  tombs,  had  acted  on  the 
artistic  taste  of  the  Etruscans.  On  these  vases  they 
would  find  an  overwhelming  abundance  of  Greek 
myth  and  legend  to  choose  subjects  from.  On  one 
class  of  vases  which  they  seem  to  have  liked — the 
circular  kylikes — they  would  even  find  the  idea  of  a 
design  disposed  within  a  circular  space,  while  on  archaic 
specimens  they  would  observe  a  free  use  of  incised 
lines.  So  that  from  these  elements  lying  to  their 
hand,  it  was  not  perhaps  a  very  startling  piece  of 
originality  to  take  a  plain  circular  mirror  of  bronze 
and  transfer  to  one  side  of  it  the  circular  de- 
sign on  a  Greek  painted  kylix.  At  all  events  we 
have  the  fact  to  deal  with,  that  a  certain  proportion 


Chap.  IV.]     INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


121 


of  the  Etruscan  mirrors  have  designs  of  an  archaic 
character  going  back  to  about  500  B.C.,  or  even  earlier, 
at  which  time,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  there  were  no 
incised  mirrors  in  Greece  to  serve  them  as  models. 
We  have  suggested  that  these  archaic  designs  were 
in  a  general  way  derived  from  the  painted  vases  then 
so  freely  imported  from  Greece.  But  we  have  also 
called  attention  to  those  early  Greek  artists  who 
settled  in  Etruria,  and  from  whom  it  was  to  be  ex- 
pected that  a  strong  Hellenic  turn  would  be  given  to 
the  native  art  of  the  Etruscans.  What  one  would  look 
for  under  such  circumstances  would  be  a  tendency  to 
lean  on  Greece  for  original  conceptions,  but  to  follow 
the  native  taste  in  modifying  or  employing  those 
conceptions  to  different  purposes  and  on  different 
materials. 

If  then  the  designs  on  the  Etruscan  mirrors,  and 
the  cistse  of  Praeneste,  are,  with  comparatively  few 
exceptions,  Greek  in  subject  and  conception,  we  may 
so  far  claim  them  as  the  product  of  Greek  genius. 
In  some  cases  the  actual  drawing  approaches  very 
close  to  the  best  Greek  ;  but  in  general  there  is,  even 
at  the  best,  a  harshness  and  a  failure  to  appreciate  the 
finer  beauties  of  Greek  originals.  Indeed  it  is  just 
when  the  Etruscan  drawing  is  at  its  best  that  this 
defect  is  the  most  keenly  noticed.  But  these  dis- 
tinctions are  not  so  easily  drawn  in  the  archaic  period. 
As  an  illustration  we  may  take  Fig.  52,  a  design 
incised  on  a  bronze  cuirass  found  at  Olympia,1  and 
consisting  of  a  pair  of  lions  and  a  pair  of  bulls,  con- 
fronted and  having  between  them  two  smaller  groups 
of  sphinxes  and  lions.  From  an  artistic  point  of  view 
the  presence  of  these  animals  side  by  side  with  the 
1  Published,  <  Bulletin  de  Corresp.  Hellen.,'  vii.,  Pis.  1-3. 


122     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


group  of  a  citharist  and  chorus,  recalls  the  almost 
primitive  period  in  which  a  once  powerful  fashion  of 
decoration  by  figures  of  lions  and  bulls  was  giving 
way  to  a  newer  taste  for  the  human  figure  and  human 
action  as  the  theme  of  decoration.     That  would  be 


Fig.  52.    Incised  design  on  bronze  cuirass.    From  Olympia. 

about  the  middle  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C.  It  was  the 
period  of  the  black  figure  vases,  between  which  and 
the  cuirass  there  is  much  in  common  in  the  matter 
of  subject,  costume  and  taste,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
incised  lines  that  give  a  character  to  both.    On  the 


Chap.  IV J       INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BEONZE. 


123 


other  hand  there  is  in  the  drawing  of  the  human 
figures  a  certain  poverty  and  harshness  which  cannot 
be  associated  with  Greek  taste  at  any  period.  Take 
for  instance  the  legs  of  the  two  male  figures  in  the 
centre.  Such  poverty  in  the  sense  of  form,  while  it 
is  unlike  Greek  art,  is  found  again  and  again  in  early 
Etruscan  de- 
signs on  bronze, 
as  for  example, 
on  the  famous 
bronze  si  tula  of 
Bologna.  A 
minute  exam- 
i  n  a  t  i  o  n  will 
reveal  other 
differences  in 
the  same  direc- 
tion. So  that 
finally  we  are 
hardly  left  in 
doubt  that  the 
must 


Fig.  53.  Incised  design  on  bronze  disc. 
From  Sicily.    Brit.  Mus.    Dia.  8}  in. 


cuirass 

have  been  either  part  of  a  trophy  set  up  at  Olympia  to 
commemorate  a  battle  gained  over  the  Etruscans,  like 
the  trophy  set  up  by  Hiero  I.  of  Syracuse,  the  helmet 
of  which  is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  in  which  case 
the  cuirass  would  be  of  Etruscan  workmanship,  or  a 
dedication  sent  to  Olympia  by  some  Etruscan  ruler,  like 
the  throne  presented  by  Arimnes  (Aruns  ?),  who  was  the 
first  barbarian  to  make  a  gift  to  the  god  of  Olympia.1 

1  Pausanias,  v.  12,  3,  Bpovos  €(tt\v  yApip.vr)o-Tov  tov  fiao~CkevvavTo$ 
iv  Tvparjvols  os  npcoTos  fiapfidpcov  dvad-qfiari  tov  iv  ^O^vyLiria  Ala 
edoprjo-aro.  The  Moscow  and  Paris  MSS.  read  'Aplfivrjs  tov,  says 
Deecke  in  his  edition  of  Miiller's  'Etrusker,'  i.  p.  342.    I  have 


suggested  Aruns. 


124     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  AKCHiEOLOGY,     [Chap.  IV. 


As  an  instance  of  undoubtedly  Greek  drawing  of 
the  archaic  period  (about  500  B.C.),  we  give  here 
(Fig.  53)  a  bronze  disc  in  the  British  Museum,1  with 
incised  design  of  an  athlete  exercising  with  the 
halteres ;  on  the  other  side  of  the  disk  is  an  athlete 


Fig.  54.    Bronze  mirror-case,  incised  design,  Aphrodite  and  Pan. 
From  Corinth.    British  Museum.    Dia.  7|  in. 


exercising  with  the  spear.  In  comparison  with  these 
figures  we  may  set  an  undoubtedly  Etruscan  design 
incised  on  a  thin  bronze  plate  found  in  the  Tiber, 
not  far  from  Koine,  now  in  the  British  Museum. 
These  two  specimens  represent  contemporary  work- 
1  Gaz.  Arch.  1875,  pi.  35. 


Chap.  IV.l      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


125 


manship,  and  present  an  instructive  comparison  illus- 
trative of  the  points  of  difference,  which  though  small 
in  themselves,  yet  cumulatively  form  a  strong  contrast 
in  the  matter  of  style. 

These  instances  may  serve  for  the  archaic  age.  We 
can  now  proceed  to  the  period  after  400  B.C.,  when 
this  art  of  incising  on  bronze  was  at  its  best  both  in 
Greece  and  in  Etruria.  Fig.  54  is  incised  on  the 
inner  side  of  a  bronze  mirror-case  found  in  Corinth, 
and  lately  acquired  by  the  British  Museum.  The 
subject  appears  to  be  Aphrodite  playing  at  the  game  of 
fivestones  (pentelithi)  with  Pan.  At  first  sight  one  is 
tempted  to  think  that  instead  of  Aphrodite,  we  may 
here  have  one  of  those  nymphs  whom  Pan  loved  to 
meet  by  fountains,  or  on  the  hills.  A  nymph  would 
naturally  enough  play  at  this  game  with  Pan,  and  the 
small  Eros  at  her  side  might  very  well  look  on.  Besides, 
the  attitude  of  this  figure  reminds  us  of  those  statues 
of  nymphs  playing  at  knucklebones,  which  are  gene- 
rally called  Astragalizusse.  On  the  other  hand  a 
nymph  would  have  no  right  to  assume  so  conspicuous 
a  place  in  the  design  as  does  this  figure  by  her  size 
and  position  in  comparison  with  Pan.  Her  head-dress, 
though  not  exclusively  worn  by  Aphrodite,  is  yet  such 
as  is  very  frequently  seen  on  her.  The  swan  in  the 
foreground  was  a  characteristic  symbol  of  Aphrodite. 
Eros  could  appear  at  the  side  of  many  others,  but  it 
was  at  the  side  of  Aphrodite  that  he  was  most  at 
home.  Pan  also  was  a  friend  of  hers  beyond  all 
doubt. 

So  far  the  characters  on  our  mirror  answer  well  to 
these  three,  Aphrodite,  Pan,  and  Eros.  The  difficulty 
is  to  understand  the  condescension  of  the  goddess  in 
playing  at  this  game  with  Pan.    We  must  remember. 


126     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


however,  that  the  game  of  knucklebones  is  peculiarly 
associated  with  Aphrodite  in  the  incident  related  by 
Lucian,1  of  a  youth  who  was  in  love  with  her  statue 
in  Knidos,  the  famous  statue  by  Praxiteles,  and  who 
endeavoured  to  divine  her  inclinations  towards  him  by 
a  throw  of  the  knucklebones  that  lay  on  the  sacred 
table  in  the  temple.  In  ordinary  practice  among  the 
Greeks  the  highest  throw  of  the  knucklebones  was 
named  "  Aphrodite.''  This,  no  doubt,  is  still  far  from 
her  actually  playing  at  a  similar  game  with  Pan,  of  which, 
indeed,  there  appears  to  be  no  other  proof.  But  there 
is  evidence  of  her  being  associated  with  Pan  and  Eros 
in  a  contest  in  which  she  takes  the  part  of  a  very 
interested  spectator.  On  a  small  terra-cotta  vase  with 
design  in  relief  in  the  Berlin  Museum,2  we  see  Aphrodite 
in  figure,  costume,  and  attitude  much  the  same  as  on 
our  bronze.  She  is  seated,  and  holds  up  her  hand  to 
stop  the  wrestling  in  which  Pan  and  Eros  are  engaged 
before  her.  Again,  on  a  Pompeian  fresco,3  Aphrodite 
stands  looking  on  while  Pan,  in  form  and  aspect  the 
same  as  on  our  bronze,  wrestles  with  Eros.  Below  the 
group  is  written  an  epigram  in  verse,  which  tells  how 
Aphrodite  looks  on  anxious  as  to  which  shall  win. 

1  Amor.  16.  This  was  the  same  youth  who  in  his  passion  cut 
the  name  of  Aphrodite  CA^poblrrj  koXt))  on  every  wall  and  on  the 
bark  of  every  tree  in  his  way.  It  appears  to  have  been  usual  to 
have  astragali  in  temples  for  the  purpose  of  divination,  see  Schol. 
ad  Pind.  <  Pyth.,'  iv.  337. 

2  Engraved,  '  Jahrbuch,'  1889,  p.  129. 

3  '  Mon.  deli'  Inst.  Arch.,5  x.  PI.  35  ;  ' Annali,'  1876,  p.  297, 
where  the  epigram  is  restored  as  follows — 

cO  Bpaavs  avOicrTCLKev  "Epcos  tg>  Havl  7ra\aiav 
Xa  Kv7rpLS  adlvei  tls  rlva  irpcoTos  eAei. 
"  'icrxvpos  p.ev  6  Uav  Kal  Kaprepos.    dWa,  navovpyos 
6  nravos  Kal  ''Epvs,    enteral  a.  dvvafiis" 


Chap.  IV.]       INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


127 


"  Pan  is  wonderful  and  strong,"  she  says,  "  but  winged 
Eros  can  work  in  many  ways.    Mere  force  must  yield." 

But  apart  from  these  questions  as  to  the  absolute 
identity  of  the  various  persons  on  our  bronze,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  idea  of  the  artist  was  to  present 
us  with  a  central  figure  of  singular  grace  and  beauty. 
The  rudest  force  of  nature  is  drawn  to  her  in  the 
person  of  Pan  ;  the  god  of  love  attends  her:  It  may  be 
that  these  two,  Pan  and  Eros,  will  struggle  and  wrestle 
for  her  approval.  Meantime  the  scene  is  peaceful, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  central  figure  is  the  ruling  idea. 
The  drawing  is  splendid.  The  attitude,  though 
perfectly  natural,  is  such  as  to  bring  out  the  large 
noble  form,  while  the  fine  simplicity  of  the  drapery 
affords  a  lovely  contrast  to  the  nude  body  and  arms. 

The  time  in  which  the  artist  of  our  bronze  lived 
(after  400  B.C.),  was  a  time  when  symbols  and  per- 
sonification occupied  much  of  men's  minds.  Nature 
was  full  of  voices  that  spoke  to  man,  as  Nymphs, 
Naiads  or  Graces,  as  Pan  or  Satyrs.  Similarly  the 
passions  of  mankind  seemed  to  the  onlooker  to  act  as 
if  they  were  special  powers,  special  entities,  individual 
beings  whom  you  could  almost  recognise,  whom  the 
poets  even  named.  Among  human  passions  love  was 
the  readiest  to  be  recognised  and  to  take  the  form  of 
an  actual  being,  an  Eros,  such  as  we  see  him  on 
the  bronze,  close  to  the  nymph.  He  is  merely  her 
guiding  passion  for  the  moment.  Artists  and  poets 
imagined  that  such  passion  must  be  a  power  outside 
the  human  frame.  They  imagined  a  being  wholly 
and  absolutely  filled  and  permeated  with  this  power, 
having  an  independent  existence,  a  personality,  which 
they  thought  must  be  youthful  and  must  have 
wings. 


128     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


Do  not  let  us,  however,  suppose  that  the  Greeks 
always  thought  in  this  manner.  A  study  of  Eros,  as 
he  appears  in  literature  and  art,  will  show  that  the  facts 
are  far  otherwise.  In  early  art  figures  of  Eros  are 
conspicuously  absent.  Personifications  of  fate,  of 
sleep  and  death,  you  may  find,  but  not  Eros.  One  of 
the  earliest  instances  was  from  the  hand  of  Pheidas, 
when  he  sculptured  the  base  of  his  statue  of  Zeus  at 
Olympia,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  think  that  this  great 
artist  had  here  as  elsewhere  foreseen  and  helped 
forward  that  recognition  of  the  affections  which  in  the 
following  ages  played  so  prominent  a  part.  By  the 
time  of  Scopas  and  Praxiteles  Eros  had,  so  to  speak, 
found  his  wings.  On  the  painted  vases  as  in  sculpture, 
he  was  thenceforth  more  and  more  common.  So  also 
in  poetic  literature  ;  iEschylus,  the  oldest  of  the  three 
great  dramatists,  knew  well  the  stormy  depths  of 
human  passion,  he  knew  love  as  a  passion,  but  not  as 
a  personal  god.  Sophocles  came  next,  and  made  for 
ever  memorable  the  love  of  Antigone  for  her  kith  and 
kin,  the  love  of  Deianira  for  her  husband,  the  affection 
of  brother  and  sister,  the  devoted  attachment  of  a 
Pylades  to  an  Orestes.  Sophocles  does  indeed  recog- 
nise the  personality  of  Eros  on  one  or  two  occasions, 
but  that  is  all.  It  is  only  when  we  reach  Euripides 
that  the  god  is  seen  to  be  in  full  force,  just  as  in  the 
contemporary  art.  This  legacy  of  a  personified  love 
together  with  a  general  spirit  of  personification  and 
symbolism  was  next  passed  on  to  Theocritus  and  the 
Bucolic  poets,  to  Apelles  and  his  contemporary 
artists.  Poets  and  artists  alike  made  the  most  of  the 
gift,  and  thus  it  happened  that  towards  the  end  of  the 
4th  cent.  B.C.  the  air  was,  so  to  speak,  full  of  concep- 
tions like  that  of  our  bronze. 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BKONZE. 


129 


We  may  now  take  for  comparison  an  example  of 
Etruscan  work  of  this  kind,  first  remarking  that  it 
occurs  on  a  bronze  mirror,  not  a  mirror-case,  lately- 
acquired  by  the  British  Museum.    Incised  designs 


Fig.  55.    Bronze  mirror,  Etruscan,  incised  design.    Perseus  preparing 
to  cut  off  the  head  of  Medusa.    British  Museum. 
Dia.  6|  in. 


though  found  in  several  instances  on  Greek  mirror- 
cases  have  not  yet  been  found  on  any  Greek  mirror, 
though  they  are  of  great  profusion  on  the  mirrors  of 
the  Etruscans. 

K 


130     HANDBOOK  OF  GrKEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


The  subject  is  one  which  very  naturally  commended 
itself  for  a  mirror.  It  is  in  fact  an  illustration  of  the 
fatal  uses  to  which  a  mirror  may  be  put,  or  if  not 
actually  a  mirror,  a  bronze  shield  or  other  reflecting 
surface.  It  is  the  story  of  Perseus  and  how  he  cut  off 
the  head  of  the  Gorgon  Medusa,  which  he  could  not 
have  done  but  for  the  aid  of  the  goddess  Athena, 
whose  glittering  shield  showed  him  the  reflection  of 
Medusa's  face,  and  thus  guided  him  to  her  where- 
abouts without  his  being  seen  by  her — the  sight  of 
Medusa's  face  would  necessarily  have  turned  him  to 
stone.  The  persons  on  the  mirror  are  Perseus  on  the 
left,  Athena  in  the  centre,  and  Hermes  on  the 
right.  Perseus  is  looking  downwards  at  a  reflection 
of  the  face  of  Medusa  near  his  feet,  and  from  the 
action  of  his  hand  he  seems  eager  to  cut  off  her  head. 
But  somehow  the  Etruscan  artist  has  got  mixed  in  his 
version  of  the  story.  The  reflection  he  shows  us  is 
produced  in  a  pool  of  water,  not  on  the  shield  of  Athena. 
That  goddess  in  fact  appears  to  hold  up  in  her  hand 
the  head  of  Medusa  already  cut  off,  and  from  it  comes 
the  reflection  in  the  pool.  If  we  compare  the  mirrors 
in  Gerhard's  work,  having  this  same  subject  of  Perseus 
and  Medusa  we  shall  find  this  mistake  is  not  uncommon, 
if  it  is  a  mistake  and  not  rather  some  version  of  the 
story  of  Perseus  and  Medusa  with  which  we  are  imper- 
fectly acquainted. 

One  such  version  was  current  in  Samos,  where  there 
was  a  place  on  which  it  was  said  that  Athena  had  made 
a  sketch  of  the  face  of  Medusa  to  teach  Perseus  what 
it  was  like,  while  the  two  were  rehearsing  the  steps  to  be 
taken  on  so  perilous  an  expedition.  Apparently  there 
had  been,  close  to  the  town  of  Samos,  a  spot  of  ground, 
having  a  configuration  not  unlike  the  face  of  Medusa. 


131 


Hence  the  notion  of  a  rehearsal.  This  notion  having 
once  got  a  hold  of  local  belief,  might  easily  be  carried 
so  far  as  to  say  that  Athena  had  actually  made  a 
Medusa's  head  in  terra-cotta  or  some  other  substance, 
and  had  trained  Perseus  to  his  task  by  holding  it  up 
and  showing  him  the  reversed  reflection  of  it  in  a  pool. 
In  favour  of  this  view  it  may  be  said  that  the  head 
which  she  holds  aloft  on  our  mirror,  is  more  like  an 
imitation  than  the  real  Medusa's  head.  For  instance, 
there  is  a  stump  below  the  neck  which  is  suggestive 
of  sculpture  but  not  of  reality.  These  things  con- 
sidered, we  ought  perhaps  to  conclude  that  the 
Etruscan  engravers  of  these  Perseus  mirrors  were  well 
acquainted  with  versions  of  the  story  which  we  only 
know  in  a  fragmentary  way. 

On  one  mirror  (Gerhard,  v.  PI.  66),  we  have  an 
earlier  stage  of  the  adventure,  where  two  finely-charac- 
terised old  women,  the  Graise  as  they  were  called, 
offer  to  lend  Perseus  the  one  eye  which  they  possessed, 
to  help  him  to  see  the  Gorgon ;  Athena  is  also  present. 
On  another  (Gerhard,  v.  PI.  67),  Medusa  sits  on  a  rock 
fast  asleep,  while  Perseus,  followed  by  Athena,  advances 
upon  her  stealthily.  Again  (Gerhard,  v.  PL  68),  we 
see  Perseus  making  off  in  haste,  having  got  the  head 
of  Medusa  safely  in  his  wallet.  He  is  pursued  by 
the  marine  deity  Phorkys,  trident  in  hand,  but  Athena 
intervenes  and  pushes  back  Phorkys  with  her  aegis. 
On  the  other  mirrors  (Gerhard,  Pis.  123,  124; 
v.  Pis.  12,  13,  69,  70),  the  rendering  of  the  story  is 
much  the  same  as  on  ours. 

The  design  on  our  mirror  (Fig.  55)  is  enclosed  within 
a  border  of  ivy  leaves,  which,  though  a  simple  enough 
matter  in  itself,  is  yet  unlike  anything  we  have  to 
show  in  Greek  art.    Not  that  we  have  not  ivy  patterns 

K  2 


132     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


at  all  stages  of  Greek  art ;  but  it  is  only  in  excep- 
tional cases  that  the  ivy  is  rendered  as  here.  Usually 
it  is  much  less  true  to  nature.  Apparently  there  was 
not  among  the  Greeks  a  general  love  for  truth  to 
nature  in  the  plant-forms  which  they  employed  for 
decoration.  The  Etruscans  were  more  exact  in  some 
respects ;  on  one  archaic  mirror  (Gerhard,  PL  421)  is 
a  border  composed  of  intertwined  tendrils  of  ivy  and 
vine,  the  leaf  of  each  being  accurately  drawn.  In 
another  of  similarly  archaic  style  (Gerhard,  PL  292) 
we  see  a  group  of  two  figures  standing  face  to  face  ; 
behind  each  rises  a  vine  which  bends  round,  following 
the  circular  shape  of  the  mirror,  and  thus  seeming  to 
suggest  that  from  some  such  beginning  the  idea  of  a 
circular  border  of  vine  or  ivy  leaves  had  taken  its 
origin.  On  a  third  mirror  (Gerhard,  PL  313)  we  have 
the  curious  phenomenon  that  the  vine  border  enters 
prominently  into  the  composition,  which  consists  of 
two  satyrs  and  a  nymph  busily  employed  in  getting 
grapes  from  the  border  of  vine.  That  is  surely  an 
error  from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  yet  it  betrays  the 
sense  of  realism  in  the  matter  of  vine  and  ivy  borders 
of  which  we  have  been  speaking.  Compared  with 
other  patterns,  these  are  the  most  frequent  on  Etruscan 
mirrors. 

In  decorating  a  circular  space  it  was  often  difficult 
to  find  a  subject  which  could  be  so  planned  and 
disposed  as  to  cover  the  whole  of  the  surface.  To  the 
ancients,  who  had  a  horror  of  vacant  spaces,  this  was 
a  fertile  source  of  ingenuity.  One  simple  way,  how- 
ever, of  solving  part  of  the  problem  suggested  itself  to 
them  even  in  early  times.  They  cut  off  a  segment  of 
the  circle  by  a  straight  line  at  right  angles  to  the 
handle  of  the  mirror.    This  straight  line  formed  the 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE.  133 


ground  on  which  their  figures  were  to  stand,  while 
the  segment  beneath  —  technically  known  as  the 
exergue — was  reserved  for  a  minor  species  of  deco- 
ration. The  idea  would  be  familiar  enough  from 
the  interiors  of  early  Greek  kylikes  or  circular 
shallow  drinking-cups.  On  an  archaic  mirror,  already 
mentioned  as  exhibiting  what  appears  to  be  the 
origin  of  the  vine  border,  the  segment  cut  off  is  not 
below  the  figures,  but  above  them.  Evidently  the 
artist — and  he  was  a  very  delicate  draughtsman — 
was  in  search  of  a  means  of  his  own  to  square  the 
circle. 

On  Etruscan  mirrors,  especially  after  400  B.C.,  it 
was  a  fairly  common  practice  to  inscribe  the  names  of 
the  persons  represented,  a  practice  which  though  it 
does  not  improve  the  design,  has  yet  been  very  useful 
to  archaeologists.  On  the  painted  Greek  vases  we  are 
often  deeply  indebted  to  a  similar  source  of  informa- 
tion. The  Greeks  in  the  early  ages  of  their  art,  when 
its  principal  function  was  to  give  a  sort  of  narrative 
representation  of  the  national  myths  and  legends, 
found  it  useful  if  not  necessary  to  append  the  names 
of  the  personages.  The  habit  descended  among  the 
vase  painters,  till  long  after  it  had  been  abandoned 
in  the  higher  walks  of  art.  It  may  seem  hard  on  the 
Etruscans  to  say  that  in  so  simple  and  natural  a 
matter  they  had  simply  borrowed  from  the  Greeks. 
But  the  fact  is  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
subjects  on  the  mirrors  are  taken  boldly  from  Greek 
myth  or  legend,  and  if  the  Etruscans  thus  helped 
themselves  to  subjects,  it  is  no  hardship  to  suggest 
that  they  had  taken  also  the  names.  On  one  thing, 
however,  they  insisted,  and  that  was  on  writing  the 
Greek  names  according  to  their  own  Etruscan  fashion, 


134    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


which  frequently  is  not  a  little  curious  ancl  even 
difficult  to  understand. 

We  come  now  to  the  subject  of  bronze  cistae  with 
incised  designs,  and  first  it  should  be  observed  that 
bronze  cistaB  of  this  kind  have,  with  a  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, been  found  only  at  Praeneste  (Palestrina). 
This  fact  has  given  occasion  to  much  conjecture.  At 
one  time  these  cistse  were  thought  to  have  been  used 
in  mystic  rites.  The  phrase  '  cista  mystica '  became 
current,  and  even  Gerhard  adopted  it,  though  recog- 
nising from  the  contents  of  the  cistae,  that  they  must 
have  been  used  for  the  bath  and  for  toilet  purposes.1 
We  possess  in  the  British  Museum  the  contents  of  one, 
and  they  are  plainly  just  such  articles  as  were  useful 
for  the  toilet  and  bath.  But  Praeneste  had  been 
famous  for  its  temple  of  Fortune  and  its  oracle.  The 
finding  of  so  many  cistae  there  and  so  very  few  else- 
where, the  apparent  resemblance  of  shape  between  the 
bronze  cistae  and  those  cistae  of  wicker  work  which 
were  used  in  the  Bacchic  mysteries*  the  prominence  of 
the  Bacchic  mysteries  in  Italy,  these  were  circum- 
stances which  largely  predisposed  archaeologists  to 
associate  some  undefined,  unknown,  mystic  character 
with  the  cistae.  However,  with  the  recovery  of  fresh 
specimens  from  time  to  time  that  view  has  been  set 
aside.  At  present  they  are  regarded  simply  as  articles 
of  the  toilet. 

The  number  of  cistae  is  now  nearly  eighty.  Of 
these  only  a  small  proportion  are  enriched  with 
designs  of  any  consequence.    The  most  famous  and 

1  See  Schoene,  in  'Annali  dell' Inst.,'  1886,  pp.  150-209,  and 
1868,  p.  413,  where  lie  reckons  as  many  as  seventy-five  cistae  For 
engravings,  see  '  Mon.  dell'  Inst.,'  viii.,  Pis.  7-8,  Pis.  29-31;  ix. 
Pis.  24-25;  *  Annali,'  1870,  p.  344;  1864,  p.  356. 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


135 


still  the  most  beautiful  is  the  one  at  Eome  in  the 
Collegio  Boniano,  known  as  the  Ficoroni  cista,1  so 
named  from  Ficoroni,  a  dealer  in  antiquities  who 
became  possessed  of  it.  It  was  found  near  Prseneste 
in  1744.  The  design  incised  on  it  is  an  illustration 
of  the  Argonautic  expedition,  which  it  is  interesting 
to  look  on  when  reading  the  Idyll  of  Theocritus  on 
the  same  subject.  But  apart  from  the  excellent 
drawing  and  composition,  this  cista  has  an  attraction 
in  the  inscription  on  the  lid,  which  records  that  it  was 
made  in  Eome  by  one  Noyios  Plautios.  The  form  of 
the  inscription  (Novios  Plautios  me  fecid) 2  makes  it 
clear  that  this  artist  had  lived  towards  the  end  of  the 
3rd  cent.  B.C.  In  no  other  instance  have  we  the  name 
of  an  artist  on  a  cista. 

There  is  one  other  cista,  in  the  British  Museum,  of 
a  beauty  not  inferior  to  the  Ficoroni  specimen.  A 
drawing  of  it  has,  however,  been  published,  and  here 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  refer  to  that  publication  (Eaoul 
Eochette,  <  Mon.  Ined.,'  PI.  58).  The  subject  is  the 
sacrifice  of  Trojan  prisoners  at  the  funeral  pyre  of 
Patroclos.  The  drawing  is  excellent,  the  types  of  the 
figures  noble,  and  the  desire  of  the  artist  to  enliven 
his  composition  by  bold  perspective  in  the  attitudes, 
conspicuous.  We  should  mention  also  his  efforts  at 
shading  to  give  roundness  to  the  forms,  because  such 
efforts,  as  we  know  from  the  painted  vases,  where 
they  would  have  been  equally  applicable,  were  rare 
among  the  Greeks. 

1  Jahn,  1  Ficoroniscli.  Cista.'  Engraved,  Bronsted,  Ficoron.  Cista 
(1847)  and  Mtiller,  Denkmaler,  PL  61,  No.  309.  It  had  been 
supposed  that  the  name  of  the  artist  might  apply  only  to  the  lid  of 
the  cista  on  which  it  was  incised.  But  Jahn,  with  Gerhard,  rightly 
dismisses  this  narrow  view. 

2  6  G.I.  L.'  i.  p.  25. 


136     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


Of  the  two  cistae 
which  we  here  take  as  ex- 
amples the  one  (Fig.  56) 
combines  two  separate 
scenes.  Near  the  centre 
is  a  group  of  two  com- 
batants with  a  winged 
figure  intervening.  We 
have  here  the  scene  in 
the  Iliad,  (iii.  355  fol.), 
where  Paris  and  Mene- 
laos  encounter  each 
other.  It  was  a  memo- 
rable scene,  because  the 
lot  had  been  cast  for 
Paris  to  take  up  arms 
against  the  very  man 
whom  he  had  wronged. 
When  he  and  Menelaos 
stood  both  ready  for 
the  fight,  the  Greek  and 
Trojan  camps  looked  on 
anxiously.  At  the  first 
round  Menelaos  made  a 
thrust  with  his  spear, 
but  Paris  swerved  and 
the  blow  passed.  Then 
Menelaos  drew  his  sword 
and  smote  Paris  on  the 
head,  but  his  helmet 
turned  the  stroke  and 
broke  the  sword  of  his 
opponent,  whereupon 
Menelaos  in  wild  fury 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


137 


rushed  on  Paris  and  would  have  strangled  him  quite 
had  not  the  goddess  Aphrodite  appeared  in  time.  On 
the  left  is  Paris,  recognisable  by  his  Phrygian  cap  :  on 
the  right  Menelaos.  In  such  extremes  the  Homeric 
deities  had  at  hand  the  simple  resource  of  throwing  a 
cloud  or  mist  round  the  person  they  wished  to  protect, 
rendering  him  invisible  to  the  foe.  Aphrodite  cast  a 
mist  over  the  body  of  Paris,  and  thus  saved  him  from 
the  Greeks.  The  scene  is  easy  to  realise,  even  now,  so 
far  as  the  thick  impenetrableness  of  a  mist  is 
concerned,  and  doubtless  the  poet  in  using  this  image 
of  divine  power  appealed  to  a  familiar  experience  of 
the  Greeks  of  his  day.  In  poetic  language,  it  was 
possible  to  call  up  such  a  scene.  But  what  would  be 
the  position  of  an  artist  in  the  face  of  such  a  subject  ? 
Mists  do  not  come  or  go  at  his  bidding.  He  would 
have  to  find  some  other  means.  On  our  cistae  he  has 
chosen  to  intensify  the  personal  intervention  of 
Aphrodite.  While  the  combatants  are  still  apparently 
fighting  he  makes  the  goddess  rush  in  with  sword  in 
hand  to  keep  back  Menelaos  and  thus  to  cover  the 
retreat  of  Paris,  to  render  him  invisible.  In  another 
place  of  the  Iliad  (v.  290  fol.)  is  an  encounter 
between  iEneas  and  Diomedes,  which  in  some  respects 
also  answers  to  the  scene  on  this  cista.  Here  again  we 
have  Aphrodite  interfering  to  save  from  spoliation 
her  Trojan  friend  iEneas,  but  with  this  result  that  the 
Greek  hero  Diomedes  rushes  at  her  and  actually 
wounds  her  till  the  divine  blood  flows.  "  Then  flowed 
the  goddess's  immortal  blood,  such  ichor  as  floweth  in 
the  blessed  gods ;  for  they  eat  no  bread  and  neither 
drink  they  flowing  wine,  wherefore  they  are  bloodless 
and  are  named  immortals."  In  ordinary  cases  of 
divine  intervention  the  deity  was  invisible  as  a  matter 


138     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


of  course ;  but  in  this  case  Athena,  who  was  on  the 
side  of  the  Greeks,  had  prepared  Diomedes  for  the 
possible  interference  of  Aphrodite;  so  that  he 
knew  well  enough  what  he  was  doing  when  he 
launched  his  spear  at  her.  However,  the  wound  was 
not  serious.  I  do  not  think  that  this  can  be  the  scene 
on  our  cista,  because  Paris  is  too  clearly  indicated  in 
the  drawing  by  his  Phrygian  cap,  and  because 
Aphrodite  would  hardly  have  been  represented  as 
having  her  own  way  so  completely  if  the  upshot  had 
been  that  she  was  wounded.  We  had  better  therefore 
keep  to  our  first  explanation,  that  the  combat  is  that 
of  Paris  and  Menelaos.  As  regards  the  figure  of  the 
goddess,  we  should  point  out  that  the  Greeks  did 
not  give  Aphrodite  wings,  however  invisible  they 
might  believe  her  to  be ;  nor  did  they  think  of  her  as 
armed  with  a  sword.  To  the  Etruscan  artists,  how- 
ever, wings  were  naturally  associated  with  deities ;  for 
some  reason  the  Oriental  instinct  for  winged  invisible 
beings  had  a  powerful  hold  on  them,  and  in  this 
respect  therefore  the  group  on  the  cista  is  thoroughly 
Etruscan  in  its  conception.  We  are  speaking,  it  is 
true,  of  a  time  when  the  Etruscans  had  ceased  to  exist 
as  a  nation,  when  they  had  become  part  of  the  Eoman 
empire,  and  had  in  artistic  matters  plunged  into  the 
stream  of  late  Greek  art,  which  then  inundated  Italy. 
Greek  literature,  especially  poetic  literature,  was  in 
the  hands  of  everyone,  and  illustrations  of  it  were 
much  in  demand,  most  of  all,  illustrations  of  the  Iliad 
and  the  poets  of  the  Epic  Cycle,  as  they  are  called  ; 
that  is,  the  poets  who  in  later  times  composed  long 
epic  poems  to  fill  in  the  events  which  preceded,  and 
which  followed  the  actual  war  of  Troy.  But  notwith- 
standing all  this  influence  the  Etruscans  never  were 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BEONZE. 


139 


quite  able  to  shake  off  their  original  instinct  for 
winged  figures. 

One  of  the  poems  of  the  Epic  Cycle  was  known  as 
the  iEthiopis,  by  Arctinos  of  Miletus.  It  treated  of 
the  career  of  Achilles,  onward  from  the  point  of  time 
at  which  the  Iliad  closes.  All  we  possess  of  it, 
however,  is  the  series  of  fragments  that  have  been 
handed  down  by  the  grammarian  Proclus,  and  others, 
together  with  some  ancient  illustrations  of  it  on  stone. 
One  of  the  prominent  scenes  occurred  when  the 
Amazons,  led  by  Penthesilea,  came  to  the  succour  of  the 
Trojans,  immediately  after  the  death  of  Hector,  which 
closes  the  Iliad.  A  battle  ensued  and  Achilles  slew  the 
Amazon  Penthesilea,  as  he  was  bound  to  do,  they  being 
the  two  leaders  ;  but  his  heart  smote  him  for  the  death 
of  so  fair  a  foe.  This  is  then  the  second  scene  on  our 
cista  (Fig.  56).  Suppose  the  two  ends  of  our  drawing 
to  be  joined ;  it  will  then  be  seen  that  the  scene  is 
shut  in  at  both  extremes  by  a  mounted  Amazon ; 
not  a  moment's  doubt  is  left  that  we  have  before  us 
a  battle  of  Greeks  and  Amazons  on  the  Trojan 
plain.  We  are  familiar  with  such  contests  in  Greek 
sculpture,  so  much  so,  that  they  pass  before  our 
eyes  only  as  exhibitions  of  artistic  skill.  But,  pray 
remember  that  to  the  ancient  spectator  it  was  other- 
wise. It  was  a  struggle  of  western  civilization  and 
skill  against  the  natural  forces  of  the  East  and  of 
barbarism. 

On  our  cista  Achilles  stands  over  the  prostrate  body 
of  Penthesilea,  and  then  occurs  the  hateful  incident 
when  Thersites,  true  to  his  base  character  in  Homer, 
flouts  Achilles  for  an  unworthy  love  towards  the 
Amazon,  and  advances  with  his  spear  raised  to  plunge 
it  into  her  eyes.    Thereupon  Achilles  took  him  by  the 


140     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IT. 

hair  of  the  head  and  felled  him.  In  the  Iliad  (ii.  216) 
we  have  a  description  of  the  personal  appearance  of 
Thersites ;  he  squinted,  was  lame  of  one  foot,  hump- 
backed, narrow-chested,  his  head  tapered  to  a  point 
and  was  nearly  bald  ;  above  all  he  was  detested  by 
Achilles  and  Odysseus.  In  ancient  art,  on  vases,  gems, 
and  marble  sarcophagi  we  have  numerous  illustrations 
of  the  death  of  Penthesilea,  and  occasionally  we  have 
representations  of  the  slaying  of  Thersites ;  but  I  am 
not  aware  of  any  other  instance,  except  that  of  our 
cista  where  Thersites  appears  in  the  act  of  striking  at 
the  Amazon.  It  would  be  difficult  to  recognise  him 
from  the  description  in  the  Iliad.  He  has  none  of  the 
repulsiveness  of  aspect  there  assigned  him.  Indeed 
I  had  not  thought  of  him  in  connection  with  this 
ligure  till  Prof.  Jebb  reminded  me  of  it  when  we  were 
together  looking  at  the  cista.1 

Let  us  now  examine  the  design  incised  on  the  second 
cista  (Fig.  57).  The  subject  is  difficult  to  explain,  and 
possibly  there  is  not  much  ground  for  confidence  in 
the  interpretation  which  we  are  going  to  propose.  It  is 
the  best,  however,  that  has  as  yet  occurred  to  me.  But 
first  let  me  state  that  an  alternative  explanation  has 
been  suggested.  It  has  been  thought  that  the  scene 
might  represent  the  race  of  Atalanta  and  Melanion,  he 
being  the  figure  whom  we  see  running  with  apples, 
apparently,  in  his  hands,  ready  to  be  strewn  along  the 
path  to  delay  Atalanta,  who  follows  in  hot  haste  with 
sword  in  hand,  and  woe  be  to  Melanion  if  she  overtake 
him.    As  far  as  this  particular  group  is  concerned 

1  See  Jahn's  '  Grr.  Bilderchroniken,'  pp.  27,  67,  and  111,  who 
gives  the  ancient  illustrations  of  the  iEthiopis,  but  they  pass  from 
the  slaying  of  Penthesilea  to  the  slaying  of  Thersites,  without  the 
intermediate  scene. 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE.  141 


there  is  not  much  to  be  said  against  the  explanation, 
except  that  Atalanta  has  too  much  the  aspect  of  a  fury 
instead  of  a  respectable  young  lady  who  excelled  in 
speed  of  foot,  and  who  was  only  to  be  won  by  a  suitor 
who  could  run  even  faster,  or  otherwise  get  the  better 
of  her  in  a  race.  Besides,  there  is  no  apparent 
connection  between  Atalanta's  race  and  the  other 
figures  on  our  cista.  Of  course  we  are  not  bound  to 
find  an  absolute  connection  between  them.  There 
might  be,  as  on  the  other  cista,  two  or  even  more  quite 
distinct  scenes. 

Among  these  other  figures  there  are  some  that  are 
beyond  question.  The  nude  goddess,  near  the  right,  is 
obviously  Aphrodite ;  though  she  is  not  winged  as  on 
the  last  cista  ;  behind  her  stands  Athena,  recognisable 
in  armour  and  attitude.  Now  in  dealing  with  ancient 
works  of  art  it  is  safe  to  suspect  when  we  see  a  nude 
Aphrodite  with  an  armed  Athena  behind  her,  that  we 
have  to  do  with  the  mythical  incident  when  the 
goddesses  Aphrodite,  Athena  and  Hera  were  conducted 
by  Hermes  to  Mt.  Ida  to  be  judged  of  their  beauty  by 
Paris,  on  which  occasion  Aphrodite  won  the  prize. 
We  ought  therefore  to  have  a  third  goddess,  Hera,  on 
the  cista — no  less  indispensable  is  Paris ;  not  absolutely 
necessary,  but  nearly  so,  is  Hermes,  while  the  presence 
of  a  figure  of  Victory  would  satisfactorily  indicate  the 
contest  of  the  goddesses  and  the  award.  Thus,  to 
adequately  represent  the  judgment  of  Paris  we  need 
six  figures,  viz. :  the  three  goddesses,  Paris,  Hermes, 
and  Victory.  There  should  not  perhaps  be  more,  and 
there  cannot  well  be  fewer. 

Returning  now  to  the  cista,  wre  have  identified 
Aphrodite,  and  next  to  her,  Athena.  Aphrodite  is 
looking  forward  and  inviting  criticism.    Athena  looks 


142    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 


PQ 


A 


PQ 


round,  as  if  waiting  the 
approach  of  some  one.  Be- 
hind Athena  is  a  figure  of 
Eros  holding  diadems  for  the 
winner,  and  thus  acting  as  a 
substitute  for  Victory.  Then 
follows  a  group  of  a  goddess 
who  answers  very  well  to 
Hera  and  a  youthful  male 
figure  with  apples  in  his 
hand.  If  we  are  right  as 
to  the  general  drift  of  the 
representation,  this  youthful, 
hastening  figure  must  be 
Hermes,  though  we  must 
admit  it  to  be  singular  that 
he  has  none  of  the  ordinary 
attributes  of  that  god,  the 
caduceus,  or  the  winged  cap. 
He  holds  an  apple  in  each 
hand,  whereas  there  was  only 
one  apple  so  far  as  we  hear. 
The  diminutive  figure  hold- 
ing an  axe  might  in  ordinary 
circumstances  pass  for  the 
god  Hephsestos.  He  was 
present  at  the  marriage  feast, 
if  we  may  infer  this  from  the 
fact  that  he  helped  Athena 
to  fashion  into  a  spear-shaft 
the  branch  which  Chiron 
had  brought,  that  spear-shaft 
which  Peleus  and  after  him 
Achilles   used    with  good 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BRONZE. 


143 


effect.  ('Epic.  Gr.  Fragm.,'  i.  p.  22,  ed.  Kinkel.) 
Besides,  Hephsestos,  as  the  son  of  Hera,  would 
naturally  enough  attend  with  the  other  deities. 
For  all  we  know  to  the  contrary,  it  may  have 
been  he  who  made  the  golden  apple,  inscribed 
"to  the  most  beautiful."  But  as  the  presence  of 
Prometheus  is  specially  mentioned  by  Catullus,  we 
may  equally  well  give  that  name  to  this  sturdy 
workman  with  axe  in  hand.  The  wild  female  figure 
with  streaming  hair  and  sword  in  hand,  rushing 
onwards,  is  an  admirable  rendering  of  Eris  or  the 
spirit  of  discord. 

Before  going  further  with  this  interpretation  it 
should  be  stated,  on  the  authority  of  Apuleius,  that  he 


Fig.  58.    Border  of  cista  Fig.  57. 


had  seen  acted  at  Corinth,  a  sort  of  pantomime  or 
burlesque  of  the  judgment  of  Paris.  We  may,  there- 
fore, be  prepared  for  the  possibility  of  a  burlesque 
element  in  our  design.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  the  next  group  on  the  cista  is  of  this  char- 
acter. It  is  quite  of  the  low  comedy  style,  and  to 
come  to  our  special  point,  it  is  suggestive  of  the 
shepherd's  life  on  Mt.  Ida.  Suppose  the  news  has 
just  reached  Paris  and  his  fellow  shepherd-boys  on  the 
hillside  that  the  three  great  goddesses  had  come  to  get 
his  judgment  as  to  their  beauty,  we  can  imagine  the 
rustic  grin  which  a  poet  of  the  low  comedy  would  put 
on  his  face  and  the  looks  of  incredulity  which  his 
companions  would  assume. 

What  we  have  on  the  cista  is  a  group  of  figures  shut 


144     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IV. 

in  by  two  massive  Ionic  columns.  One  would  suppose 
that  these  columns  must  indicate  a  temple ;  yet  the 
figures  between  them  stand  on  rocky  ground.  The 
figure  on  the  right  is  an  old  man  leaning  on  a  staff, 
very  much  like  a  study  from  an  old  man  on  the  east 
frieze  of  the  Parthenon.  From  the  action  of  his  hand 
he  is  evidently  concerned  with  what  is  going  on 
further  to  the  right.  He  ought  to  be  Zeus,  if  our 
interpretation  is  right,  and  in  fact  he  is  not  unlike 
Zeus,  though  he  wants  the  thunderbolt,  the  eagle  and 
the  sceptre.  He  ought  to  have  had  one  or  other  of 
these  symbols.  We  are  certainly  in  a  difficulty  as  to 
this  figure.  But  that  is  nothing  to  the  difficulty 
which  besets  the  group  behind  him.  Can  this  young 
man  putting  off  or  on  his  cloak  be  Paris  ?  He  has  the 
ears  of  a  satyr  and  surely  that  was  far  from  fitting  to 
Paris.  Yet  the  figure  cannot  be  a  satyr.  The  hunts- 
man's boots  and  the  cloak  which  he  wears  are  conclusive 
against  that.  He  must  therefore  be  a  mortal  of  some 
kind.  The  boy  with  the  dog  peering  round  the 
column  looks  like  a  shepherd-boy,  and  possibly  also 
the  young  man  who  stands  behind  grinning  is  another 
shepherd.  If  then  the  central  figure  is  actually  Paris, 
we  must  suppose  him  to  be  surprised  at  the  approach 
of  the  goddesses,  and  to  be  in  the  act  of  arraying 
himself  for  the  extraordinary  occasion  which  had 
arrived.  The  scene  is  obviously  a  burlesque  of  some 
myth  or  legend,  and  notwithstanding  the  difficulties 
of  identification  just  mentioned  we  cannot  conceive 
any  more  likely  explanation  than  the  judgment  of 
Paris. 

As  regards  the  two  Ionic  columns,  it  should  be 
noticed  that  one  of  them  has  its  uppermost  drum,  or 
perhaps  only  its  necking,  sculptured  with  a  scene  of 


Chap.  IV.]      INCISED  DESIGNS  ON  BKONZE.  145 


combat,  recalling  in  a  measure  the  sculptured  drums  of 
the  columns  from  the  temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus. 
The  other  column  is  merely  enriched  with  the  honey- 
suckle pattern  familiar  on  the  necking  of  Ionic 
columns.  Behind  Hermes,  or  whoever  he  is  that  runs 
with  the  apple  in  each  hand,  is  a  monument  surmounted 
by  a  lion  and  gryphon.  What  connection  it  has  with 
the  scene  is  not  apparent.  But  we  see  from  the 
irregular  treatment  of  the  two  Ionic  columns  that  the 
artist  could  not  have  followed  strictly  a  Greek  model. 
He  had  not  the  instincts  of  a  rigorous  exactness  which 
characterized  the  Greek,  and  this  observation  prepares 
us  in  some  measure  for  difficulties  of  interpretation 
which  would  have  been  absent  in  a  purely  Greek 
design. 


L 


146     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  Y. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ENGRAVED  GEMS. 

Koi  t co  1/8'  cLTTolaeLS  (rrjfjL   o  Kelvos  evfiaOes 
(r(ppay7bos  epK€i  tcoS'  inbv  ixaOrjo-erai. 

Soph.,  Track.,  v.  605. 

In  following  up  the  history  of  gem  engraving  we 
make,  as  with  the  vases,  a  fresh  start  about  600  B.C. 
At  this  date  and  for  some  time  after  it,  the  intro- 
duction of  coinage  and  of  writing,  had  apparently 
interfered  largely  with  the  production  of  gems  in 
Greece.  They  were  no  longer  needed  as  seals  to  any 
great  extent.  Their  chief  use  was  as  personal  orna- 
ments. The  Greeks  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C.  were  un- 
doubtedly fond  of  anything  that  could  add  to  personal 
attraction.  Graceful  appearance  was  a  passion  with 
them.  But  their  means  were  limited.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Etruscans  were  rich,  given  to  show,  and 
ready  to  import  from  Greece  every  product  of  luxury. 
They  imported  gems  along  with  archaic  vases  and 
they  speedily  acquired  the  art  of  engraving  gems  for 
themselves. 

As  regards  the  technical  process  by  which  gems 
were  executed,  we  read  in  Herodotus  (vii.  69)  that 
among  the  ^Ethiopians  in  the  army  of  Xerxes  were 
some  who  had  their  arrows  tipped  not  with  iron,  but 
with  a  sharp  stone  with  which  they  also  engraved 


Chap.  V.] 


ENGKAVED  GEMS. 


147 


gems,  apparently  those  gems  which  they  employed  as 
coins,  and  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made. 
Many  of  the  lenticular  and  glandular  gems  of  which 
we  have  spoken  (p.  41),  are  of  steatite,  which  is  easily 
engraved  with  obsidian,  a  material  which  has  been 
found  fashioned  as  knives  and  otherwise  in  the  oldest 
tombs  in  the  Greek  islands.  In  general,  however,  it 
will  be  seen  that  even  on  the  steatite  gems  an  instru- 
ment consisting  of  a  minute  metal  disc  with  a  sharp 
edge,  and  worked  by  a  drill,  had  been  employed  to  sink 
the  deeper  parts  of  the  design.  An  instrument  of  this 
kind  would  answer  to  Pliny's  ferrum  rettcsum  and  his 
fervor  terebrarum  (xxxvii.  76).  Such  an  instrument 
seems  to  have  been  known  from  the  earliest  time,  and 
to  have  become  necessary  in  the  working  of  the  harder 
stones,  such  as  rock-crystal,  carnelian,  jasper  and 
haematite,  and  the  evidence  of  it  is  easily  to  be 
recognised  on  these  gems  by  the  numerous  small  cup- 
like sinkings,  which  in  the  ruder  specimens  are  left 
much  as  they  were  at  first  made,  while  in  the  finer 
specimens  they  are  finished  off  in  keeping  with  the 
general  design.  This  will  be  noticed  most  frequently 
in  the  heads,  feet,  and  legs  of  animals.  Larger  discs 
were  used  where  larger  spaces  had  to  be  hollowed  out, 
as  for  instance  the  fore  and  hind-quarters  of  a  bull. 
These  sinkings  were  then  connected  by  graving-tools 
fitted  with  diamond  points,  and  worked  by  a  drill  with 
a  forward  and  backward  movement.  These  were  the 
crustse  of  diamonds,  and  the  fragments  of  ostracitis,  of 
which  Pliny  speaks  (xxxvii.  15  and  65).  For  the 
harder  sorts  of  stones  a  powder,  apparently  much  the 
same  as  the  emery  powder  now  in  use,  smyris,1  was 

1  a-fxvpLs.     Hesychius,  s.v.  a-pipls.    a/x/xov  eidos  ft  o-p^oirat  oi 

(TKkrjpol  TQOV  XlO(OV. 

L  2 


148     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


mixed  with  oil  and  employed  to  charge  the  tools.  It 
seems  to  be  this  that  Pliny  (xxxvii.  32)  refers  to  as 
Naxium. 

It  has  already  been  suggested  (p.  49)  that  gems  en- 
graved in  the  form  of  beetles  or  scarabs  may  have  had 
their  origin  in  Egypt.  Thence  the  scarab  found  its  way 
into  Greece  and  Etruria,  partly  through  the  commerce 
of  the  Phoenicians,  and  partly  under  the  influence  of 
Greek  residents  in  Egypt  during  the  6th  cent.  B.C.,  or 
nearly  so.  Apparently  Cyprus,  with  its  mixed  popula- 
tion of  Greeks  and  Phoenicians,  had  formed  a  sort  of 
stepping-stone.  Cyprus  has  yielded  a  considerable 
number  of  scarabs  of  the  date  just  mentioned.  High 
among  them  must  rank  one  in  the  British  Museum,  (PL 
XII.,  Fig.  10),  representing  Athena  in  her  character  of 
Gorgon  slayer.  Behind  her  neck  is  seen  the  face  of  the 
Gorgon  in  profile ;  lower  down  the  serpents  and  wings 
of  the  Gorgon,  while  behind  her  feet  fall  three  drops 
of  the  Gorgon's  blood  (Euripides, 1  Ion,'  1003).  In  her 
right  hand  appears  to  be  the  solitary  eye  of  the  Graiae 
which  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  slaying  of 
Medusa. 

Gems  so  peculiar  as  the  scarabs  in  shape,  and 
in  the  designs  engraved  on  them,  appear  to  have 
had  little  permanent  attraction  for  the  Greeks,  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  scarcity  of  specimens  as  yet  found 
on  Greek  soil.  The  Etruscans,  on  the  other  hand, 
may  be  said  to  have  had  a  passion  for  gems  of  this 
form,  so  large  is  the  number  of  them  found  in  Etruria, 
and  now  in  public  collections,  not  to  speak  of  private 
cabinets. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
whatever  their  success  may  have  been  in  gem-en- 
graving, the  Etruscans  remained  always  indebted  to 


149 


the  Greeks  for  their  subjects,  for  the  proportions  of 
the  human  figure  which  they  employed,  and  for  their 
manner  of  rendering  the  figure.  The  subjects,  as  has 
been  said,  are  taken  from  the  legends  of  Greek  heroes, 
very  rarely  from  myths  of  the  gods.  Pythagoras,  the 
philosopher,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  these  gem- 
engravers,  and  himself  the  son  of  a  gem-engraver, 
forbade  his  followers  to  wear  the  image  of  a  god  on 
their  rings.  But  whether  or  not  there  was  any 
general  feeling  of  reverence  in  the  matter,  the  fact 
remains  that  deities  are  very  scarce  on  the  scarabs. 

The  proportions  of  the  figure  show  a  short  body 
with  long  legs,  precisely  such  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
sculptures  from  ^Egina  in  Munich,  the  Harpy  tomb 
in  the  British  Museum,  or  the  metopes  of  Selinus  in 
Palermo.  The  costume  is  equally  Greek  of  the  date 
of  these  sculptures.  The  figures  are  represented  in 
profile  and  constantly  engaged  in  action.  The  work- 
manship is  laboriously  minute,  the  contours  of  a 
design  being  cut  sharply  down,  and  the  relief,  as  seen 
in  an  impression,  kept  flat  within  the  contours.  All 
these  characteristics  will  be  found  combined  in  Greek 
sculpture  of  the  end  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C.,  and  the 
early  part  of  the  5th.  This,  then,  is  the  date  to  which 
the  beginning  of  scarab-engraving  in  Etruria  may  be 
assigned.  Why  its  beginning  was  marked  by  so 
much  excellence  of  detail  is  explained  by  the  circum- 
stance that  just  then  Greek  sculpture  had  attained 
perfection  in  the  minuteness  and  refinement  of 
archaism. 

Among  the  early  scarabs  and  scaraboids  found  in 
Etruscan  tombs  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  say  whether 
they  may  not  have  been  imported  from  Greece.  A 
scarab  of  black  jasper  found  in  the  Troad,  and  now  in 


150     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


Berlin,  has  the  inscription  2HMONOS  in  archaic 
Greek.  Without  this  inscription,  and  without  a 
knowledge  of  its  provenance  this  gem  would  ordi- 
narily rank  as  Etruscan.  This  alone,  were  there  no 
other  instances  to  the  same  effect,  would  be  a  warning 
to  leave  the  question  open  as  to  how  far  the  Greeks 
actually  produced  gems  of  the  scarab  form  in  archaic 
times. 

It  will  be  noticed  in  following  the  history  of  the 
scarabs,  that  there  is  a  gradual  tendency  to  relax 
minuteness  of  detail  in  the  human  figure,  to  make  up 
for  it  by  indicating  forcibly  the  bones  as  seen  at  the 
knees,  elbows,  ankles,  with  other  prominent  points  in 
the  anatomy ;  to  prefer  male  figures  as  nude  as  possible 
in  contrast  to  the  earlier  stage  where  draped  female 
figures  gave  frequent  scope  for  finish  of  detail;  to 
become  content  with  a  more  or  less  general  indication 
of  the  figure  within  its  contours,  and  finally  to  reverse 
the  proportions  so  as  to  show  comparatively  a  long 
torso  with  short  legs,  such  as  is  believed  to  have 
been  a  characteristic  of  the  sculptor  Polycleitos.  The 
changes  here  indicated  may  be  supposed  to  have 
taken  place  within  the  period  of  a  century. 

The  best  and  most  carefully  engraved  scarabs  have 
been  found,  so  far  as  is  known  from  the  comparatively 
few  records  that  have  been  kept,  in  tombs  accompanied 
by  vases  of  the  black  figure  and  early  red  figure 
styles,  that  is  to  say,  vases  ranging  from  the  dates 
about  B.C.  500  to  B.C.  440.  Where  scarabs  have  been 
found  with  vases  of  the  later  and  free  red  figure 
style,  it  is  noticeable  that  they  are  rude  in  execution, 
and  may  be  as  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  3rd  cent. 
B.C.  Yet  these  rude  and  unquestionably  late  scarabs 
retain  in  general  the  same  class  of  subjects  :  figures 


Chap.  V.]        ENGRAVED  GEMS— SCARABS. 


151 


of  heroes,  centaurs,  and  such  like,  which  the  early 
engravers  had  made  familiar. 

At  present  we  can  only  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the 
Greeks  had  little  taste  for  the  scarab  form  of  gem,  and 
that  is  just  what  would  be  expected  of  them.  In  the 
first  place  the  constancy  of  one  particular  form  which 
satisfied  the  Etruscan  engravers  was  itself  a  species  of 
tyranny.  Then  the  shape  of  a  beetle  could  not  well 
be  enlarged  or  varied  in  size  as  an  artist  might  wish. 
There  was  a  realism  about  it  which  demanded  actual 
size  in  the  imitations  of  it.  The  beetle  had  no  sanctity 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Greeks  as  it  had  among  the 
Egyptians.  There  were  in  fact  plenty  of  reasons  for 
their  rejection  of  the  beetle  or  scarab  form ;  but 
perhaps  the  chief  reason  was  the  very  confined  area 
which  it  presented  for  an  engraved  design.  That 
suited  the  Etruscans  very  well  with  their  love  of 
minute  careful  workmanship.  The  difference  between 
them  and  the  Greeks  in  this  matter  of  workmanship 
may  be  seen  by  comparing  their  goldsmith's  work. 
The  Etruscan  goldsmith  produces  a  meander  by 
means  of  innumerable  small  globules  of  gold  soldered 
down  with  infinite  pains  so  as  to  form  the  pattern. 
The  Greek  takes  a  fine  thread  of  gold  and  produces 
the  pattern  in  a  moment.  We  do  not  say  that  the 
Greeks  were  not  also  minutely  painstaking  at  an  early 
stage  of  their  course ;  but  they  found  afterwards  that 
it  is  a  better  principle  to  spare  the  labour  of  your 
hands  than  the  labour  of  your  brains. 

As  regards  gem-engraving  they  certainly  demanded 
more  elbow-room  than  the  Etruscans  or  Egyptians, 
and  accordingly  instead  of  the  scarab  form  they  chose 
what  is  now  commonly  called  the  scaraboid,  i.e.  a  gem 
which  presents  an  oblong  surface  for  engraving,  much 


152     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


like  an  Egyptian  cartouche,  or  the  base  of  a  large 
scarab,  but  is  quite  plain  at  the  back,  with  no  trace  of 
the  beetle  left.  We  stick  pins  through  our  beetles 
vertically :  the  ancients  stuck  them  horizontally,  and 
thus  obtained  a  swivel  on  which  the  creature — we  are 
speaking  of  stone  beetles — could  be  turned  round 
without  injury  to  its  appearance.  In  the  scaraboids 
also  this  swivel  was  retained.  Somewhere  between  a 
scarab  and  a  scaraboid  is  a  gem  in  the  British  Museum, 
(No.  479),  on  the  back  of  which  is  a  satyr's  head  in 
relief,  as  if  in  avoidance  of  the  beetle's  back  on  the 
scarabs.  On  the  face  of  the  gem  is  a  citharist  and 
the  name  of  the  engraver:  AOPIE2  EIIOIE2E 
or  2TPIE2  EnOIESE  (<  Jahrbuch/  iii.  PL  8, 
Fig.  1). 

As  examples  of  engraving  on  scaraboids,  such  as  it 
was  practised  from  early  times  down  to  about  400  B.C., 
we  may  take  the  gems  on  PL  XII.,  Nos.  1-15.  No.  1 
represents  a  bull,  the  artistic  type  of  which  carries  us 
almost  back  to  the  painted  bull  found  by  Dr.  Schlie- 
mann  at  Tiryns  (Fig.  115),  whence  it  may  perhaps  be 
inferred  that  scaraboids  of  this  class  were  the  immediate 
descendants  of  the  lenticular  gems  of  the  Mycenae 
period.  No.  2  shows  us  a  lion  attacking  a  bull,  the  work- 
manship being  far  in  advance  of  the  last-mentioned  gem. 
The  art  is  already  aspiring  to  largeness  of  manner  and 
vigour  of  action.  No.  3  gives  us  again  a  characteristic 
of  the  engraving  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  The  subject  is 
the  favourite  one  of  a  bull.  The  artistic  treatment  is 
full  of  breadth  and  vigour,  with  yet  the  drawback 
of  insufficient  freedom  of  conception  in  the  details. 
The  artist  is  still  hampered  by  the  traditions  of 
drawing  his  details  of  the  form  of  the  bull  in  a 
conventional  manner.    He  has  a  love  for  sweeping 


Chap.  V.]     ENGRAVED  GEMS — SCAEABOIDS.  153 


decorative  lines,  whether  they  are  altogether  in  place 
or  not. 

But  the  finest  gem  of  a  date  previous  to  400  B.C.  is 
a  burnt  carnelian  in  the  British  Museum  (PI.  XII., 
No.  15),  representing  a  youth  seated  on  a  rock  and 
playing  on  a  lyre.  It  is  a  little  archaic  in  some  ways, 
but  altogether  has  in  it  a  largeness  of  style  which 
makes  one  think  of  this  figure  as  a  slightly  older  type 
of  those  young  gods  seated  in  the  east  frieze  of  the 
Parthenon,  and  if  our  gem  is  worthy  of  being  associated 
with  those  seated  figures  of  the  Parthenon  frieze,  then 
surely  it  is  a  treasure  for  us  to  possess.  It  is  a  proof 
that  the  gem-engraver  may  at  times  have  been  an  artist 
of  perfect  attainments.  In  our  gem  the  structure  of 
the  body  of  the  youth,  the  treatment  of  the  drapery 
round  his  legs,  the  manner  in  which  the  perspective 
of  the  figure  is  adapted  to  the  necessary  lowness  of 
relief,  are  all  points  that  may  afford  comparisons  with 
the  Parthenon  frieze ;  nor  less  so  is  the  serene  com- 
posure with  which  the  youth  bends  over  his  instru- 
ment, enabling  us  at  once  to  interpret  the  music  of  his 
lyre.  Who  then  is  this  youth  seated  at  his  lyre? 
There  is  no  indication  of  Apollo  about  him.  The 
alternative  would  seem  to  be  some  motive  of  ordinary 
life  which  the  artist  has  idealized. 

But  this  raises  a  question  which  we  may  stop  for 
a  moment  to  consider.  We  are  familiar  with  the 
statue  of  an  athlete  in  the  act  of  throwing  a  disc. 
The  statue  is  usually  described  as  a  copy  from  a  work 
of  Myron's.  We  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  it  as 
some  late  ancient  writers  have  taught  us  to  do,  as 
merely  the  statue  of  an  athlete,  a  discobolus,  and 
then  we  proceed  to  argue  that  by  the  time  of  Myron 
— he  was  a  contemporary  of  the  engraver  of  our  gem 


154     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.      [Chap.  V. 


— sculptors  had  begun  to  find  attractive  motives  and 
opportunities  of  observation  in  the  games  and  exercises 
of  athletes  going  on  before  their  eyes.    No  doubt 
the  statue  in  question  had  been  carefully  studied  from 
the  life,  and  if  this  is  so,  why  not  call  it  simply  a 
discobolus,  as  we  have  been  wont  to  do  ?    But  in  the 
first  place,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  it  had  ever 
occurred  to  an  artist  in  those  early  days,  to  propose 
to  himself  a  subject  taken  direct  from  ordinary  life, 
unless  for  the  purpose  of  humour,  or  perhaps  occa- 
sionally for  portraiture.    In  the  second  place,  there  is 
in  the  British  Museum  (No.  742)  an  engraved  gem, 
on  which  we  see  a  discobolus  in  precisely  Myron's 
attitude,  and  this  gem  is  inscribed  with  the  name  of 
Hyacinthos.    From  this  name  we  learn  that  the 
disk-thrower  on  the  gem,  at  least,  is  not  an  actual 
athlete,  but  the  legendary  hero  Hyacinthos,  who  was 
killed  in  playing  at  disk-throwing  with  Apollo,  and 
from  whose  blood  sprang  the  flower  hyacinth.  There 
cannot  be  much  doubt  that  the  true  name  for  Myron's 
statue  also  was  Hyacinthos.    The  mere  matter  of  a 
name  may  be  of  no  moment ;  but  by  recognising  this 
as  the  right  name  we  are  able  to  perceive  the  manner 
in  which  Myron's  mind  worked.    With  his  habit  of 
observing  nature  he  had  been  caught  with  the  beauty 
of  the  attitude  of  the  disk-thrower  at  the  instant  when 
he  is  going  to  hurl  forth  the  disk.    He  next  looked 
round  among  the  known  legends  of  heroes  for  a  subject 
which  would  allow  him  to  use  this  attractive  motive. 
Or,  if  you  like,  you  may  suppose  him  to  have  been 
first  captivated  by  the  legend  of  Hyacinthos,  and  to 
have  next  gone  to  watch  athletes  exercising ;  in  either 
case  the  combination  of  legend  and  reality  in  his  mind 
would  compel  him  to  idealize  the  form  of  his  athlete, 


Chap.  V.]     ENGKAVEP  GEMS— SCAKABOIDS. 


155 


and  thus  produce  the  statue  with  which  we  are 
familiar  in  ancient  copies.  In  doing  so  he  would  have 
this  advantage  also,  that  the  educated  taste  of  the 
time  would  at  once  recognise  the  legendary  hero, 
whereas  the  statue  of  a  mere  athlete  could  only  be 
locally  recognisable,  and  would  be  regarded  generally 
as  more  or  less  of  an  impertinence  to  the  public  taste. 
It  is  not  inferred  that  this  argument  would  necessarily 
apply  to  our  gem,  of  a  youth  playing  on  the  lyre 
because  the  gem  was  not  made  to  appeal  to  public 
taste,  but  still  it  is  possible  that  the  youth  was  a 
figure  known  to  ancient  legend. 

To  be  compared  with  this  gem  is  a  larger  and  more 
striking  scaraboid  in  rock  crystal,1  representing  the 
same  subject,  which  also  comes  from  Greece.  It  is 
certainly  more  ambitious,  and  illustrates  a  more  ad- 
vanced stage  of  art.  Still  more  advanced  in  one  sense, 
because  truer  to  the  observation  of  natural  attitudes 
in  playing  on  this  peculiar  shape  of  lyre,  known  as 
the  magadis,  is  a  gem  in  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum 
at  Cambridge.  The  attitude  of  the  player  exhibits 
more  of  abandonment  to  the  theme  than  in  the  other 
two  gems.  But  still  the  forms  retain  much  of  the 
severity  of  the  older  manner.  Indeed  the  whole 
engraving  of  this  gem  announces  an  artistic  desire  to 
combine  the  severe  forms  of  a  still  slightly  archaic 
time  with  the  rising  sentiment  of  realism. 

Towards  the  beginning  of  the  4th  cent.  B.C.,  the 
engraving  of  scaraboids  in  Greece  is  admirably 
represented  by  the  work  of  Dexamenos  of  Chios,  as 

1  It  is  engraved  in  Brondsted's  4  Voyage  en  Grece,'  ii.,  vignette. 
Cf.  ii.  p.  277.  Brondsted  obtained  it  in  1820  from  Sir  Patrick 
Boss,  then  Commandant  of  Zante.  It  now  belongs  to  Mrs. 
Cockerell. 


156      HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


seen  in  several  scaraboids  found  in  tombs  in  the 
Crimea.  On  two  of  them  the  device  is  that  of  a 
crane,  in  the  one  case  flying,  in  the  other  standing.1 
With  the  work  of  Dexamenos  may  be  compared  two 
unsigned  scaraboids  in  the  British  Museum.  The  one 
representing  a  horse  (No.  483),  may  be  compared  with 
a  similar  design  from  the  Crimea,2  and  placed  towards 
the  beginning  of  the  4th  cent.  B.C.,  so  as  to  be 
judged  along  with  the  horses  of  the  Mausoleum  frieze. 
The  other  here  given  (PL  XII.,  No.  14)  has  a  figure  of 
Athena  Parthenos,  obviously  copied  from  the  famous 
statue  of  Pheidias  in  the  Parthenon,  with  this  dif- 
ference, that  on  the  gem  she  holds  the  acroterion  or 
aphlaston  of  a  ship  to  indicate  a  naval  victory.  So 
also  No.  13  on  the  same  plate,  with  the  design  of  an 
athlete  (or  Perseus  ?)  stooping  to  tie  his  sandal,  belongs 
to  this  same  period  of  excellence  in  engraving  on 
scaraboids.  Throughout  the  4th  century  scaraboids 
continued  to  be  produced,  though  apparently  in 
smaller  numbers,  and  with  diminishing  skill. 

To  persons  who  cared  chiefly  for  the  design  engraved 
on  a  gem,  the  scaraboicl  was  a  waste  of  material,  since 
the  same  effect  could  be  produced  on  a  thin  slice  of 

1  The  flying  crane  is  signed  AEZAM ENOZ  E[~IOIE  XIOZ,  and 

is  engraved  in  4  Compte-rendu  de  la  Commiss.  Arch,  pour  1861/ 
PI.  6,  Fig.  10,  p.  147.  It  is  a  chalcedony  scaraboid,  mounted  as  a 
finger-ring.  M.  Chabouillet  ('  Gaz.  Arch.'  1886,  p.  154)  is  not  quite 
sure  of  this  gem,  though  he  admits  the  beauty  of  the  work.  The 
other  is  merely  signed  AEZAMENOZ:  it  is  an  agate  scaraboid 
with  cable  border,  and  is  engraved  in  4  Compte-rendu  de  la 
Commiss.  Arch,  pour  1865/  PI.  3,  Fig.  40,  p.  95.  The  name  of 
AEZAMENOZ  occurs  also  on  a  gem  in  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum, 
Cambridge,  obtained  by  Colonel  Leake,  presumably  in  Greece 
(King,  i.  p.  123). 

2  Engraved,  '  Compte-rendu  de  la  Commiss.  Arch,  pour  I860,' 
PI.  4,  Fig.  10. 


Chap.  V.]    ENGRAVED  GEMS — BEST  PERIOD. 


157 


stone,  which  again  could  be  mounted  on  a  massive 
ring  more  sumptuously  than  the  scaraboid  with  its 
necessarily  plain  hoop  and  swivel.  The  desire  of 
saving  expense  and  yet  to  combine  a  good  design 
with  some  show,  is  to  be  seen  also  in  the  scaraboids 
made  of  glass  paste,  acppayi&es  vakivai.  These  glass 
scaraboids  seem  to  have  been  worn  as  the  central 
ornament  of  a  bracelet,  or  as  the  pendant  of  a  necklace. 
In  some  cases  scaraboids  appear  to  have  been  actually 
cut  down  for  this  purpose,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
most  of  the  gems  now  conveniently  called  cut 
scaraboids  or  cut  scarabs,  owing  chiefly  to  the  cable 
border  round  them,  and  to  a  certain  affectation  of 
archaism,  are  not  simply  late  imitations. 

From  the  4th  cent.  B.C.  onwards  the  form  of  gem 
most  generally  in  use  was  a  thin  oval  slice  of  stone 
having  a  design  sunk  on  its  face  (intaglio)  and  set  in 
a  ring  to  be  worn  on  the  finger.  Of  the  stones  thus 
employed  the  most  frequent  is  the  sard,  varying  from 
a  fine  golden  translucency  to  a  deep  blood  colour. 
Amethyst,  beryl,  jacinth,  garnet,  plasma  are  more  or 
less  rare.  Such  stones  as  the  onyx,  sardonyx,  nicolo, 
agate,  chalcedony,  jasper,  are  not  uncommon  among 
GraBco-Roman  gems,  the  sardonyx  lending  itself 
admirably  for  designs  engraved  in  relief  (cameo). 

From  what  is  known  otherwise,  it  would  reasonably 
be  expected  that  gem-engraving,  like  the  other  arts  of 
Greece,  had  reached  perfection  at  the  beginning  of 
the  4th  cent.  B.C.  Apart,  however,  from  a  certain 
number  of  the  scaraboids  already  mentioned,  and  a 
small  number  of  gold  rings,  only  a  very  few  examples 
of  engraving  have,  survived  from  this  period.  In 
these  gems  the  design  is  extremely  shallow ;  the  lines 
are  fine  and  a  little  scratchy,  like  those  of  a  delicate 


1 58      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


pen-and-ink  sketch.  Frequently  the  lines  do  not 
reach  quite  home  to  the  points  where  they  should 
begin  or  end,  and  this  circumstance  also  lends  to  the 
engraving  something  of  the  character  of  an  extremely 
delicate  sketch.  These,  however,  are  points  which 
cannot  well  be  seen  without  a  magnifying-glass.  To 
the  eye  the  engraving  appears  to  be  executed  with 
all  desirable  precision.  The  design  itself  is  conceived 
with  singular  simplicity. 

We  may  place  in  the  4th  cent.  B.C.,  the  fine  sard 
(PL  XII.,  No.  17)  on  which  is  engraved  an  ecstatic 
meenad.  This  gem  has  been  broken,  and  the  lower 
parts  of  the  legs  badly  restored  in  gold.  But  for  the 
rest  the  engraving  is  kept  extremely  shallow,  the 
details  of  the  figure  being  thought  out  with  amazing 
delicacy.  It  will  be  seen  that  with  all  the  refinement 
of  beauty  pervading  this  gem,  the  head  is  dispro- 
portionately large,  a  circumstance  which  suggests  that 
the  gem  is  older  than  the  frieze  of  the  Mausoleum, 
about  352  B.C.,  by  which  time  such  errors  of  proportion 
had  ceased  in  all  good  work.  Or  again  we  may  take  the 
gem  (PL  XII.,  No.  16),  a  fine  sard,  on  which  is  figured  a 
lady  seated,  reading  apparently  a  song,  if  we  may  judge 
so  much  from  the  lyre  beside  her.  It  seems  to  have 
been  a  love  song  from  the  fact  that  the  word  Eros  1 
has  been  scratched  in  on  the  cippus  below  her  lyre. 
In  any  case  the  engraving  is  again  very  shallow,  and 

1  Eros  occurs  as  the  name  of  an  Athenian  sculptor  on  a  statue 
of  a  priestess  found  at  Olympia.  There  also  the  letters  are  of  a 
late  form.  See  Loewy,  '  Inschr.  Gr.  Bildhauer,'  No.  333.  On  the 
gem  it  is  perhaps  more  probable  that  the  word  GPQC  indicates 
not  the  name  of  the  engraver,  but  the  subject  of  the  song  which 
the  figure  is  reading  from  the  scroll,  and  may  thus  easily  have 
been  a  subsequent  addition  made  by  a  Koman  owner  of  the  gem. 


Chap.  V.]         ENGKAVED  GEMS— CAMEOS. 


159 


very  beautifully  studied  with  a  view  to  simplicity  and 
purity  of  sentiment. 

For  further  examples  of  the  engraving  of  this  period, 
we  may  refer  to  the  collection  of  gold  rings;  and 
here  it  may  be  conjectured  that  owing  to  the  intrinsic 
value  of  objects  of  this  description  the  small  number 
of  them  now  existing  may  not  represent  the  number 
actually  found  in  recent  years.  An  intaglio  engraved 
on  gold  could  have  no  translucency,  and  should  the 
design  embrace  many  lines  such  as  are  necessary  to 
indicate  draped  figures,  much  of  its  effect  would  be  lost 
unless  the  engraving  were  carried  out  with  elaborate 
minuteness. 

An  alternative,  when  drapery  with  fine  or 
minute  lines  was  indispensable,  was  to  represent 
the  figure  in  slightly  embossed  relief.  These  em- 
bossed designs  lead  to  the  question  of  engraving 
in  relief  (cameo).  Even  as  early  as  the  7th,  or 
the  beginning  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C.,  this  principle 
of  engraving  was  recognised  in  the  decoration  of 
certain  shells  (Tridacna  squamosa)  and  ostrich  eggs 
by  Phoenician  or  Greek  workmen  resident  in  the 
Delta  of  Egypt.  Still  the  cameo  in  its  general 
signification  does  not  appear  to  have  become  a 
permanent  and  favourite  type  of  gem  till  the  4th,  or 
more  probably  the  3rd  cent.  B.C.,  when  the  introduc- 
tion of  stones  with  variously  coloured  layers,  such  as 
the  sardonyx,  onyx,  and  nicolo,  showed  what  effect 
could  be  produced  by  a  design  cut  in  relief  in  these 
materials,  and  when  the  use  of  rings  as  seals  came  to 
be  superseded  by  the  larger  use  of  them  as  personal 
ornaments.  Pliny  states  that  Scipio  Africanus  was 
the  first  Eoman'who  had  a  gem  cut  in  sardonyx,  and 
that  from  his  time  this  gem  came  much  into  favour. 


160     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


Apparently  the  cameo  engraved  in  onyx  or  sardonyx 
and  serving  merely  as  an  ornament  had  been  preceded 
by  cameos  cast  in  glass  paste  and  coloured  to  imitate 
precious  stones,  as  also  by  cameos  impressed  in  terra- 
cotta and  then  gilt  to  imitate  gold  medallions. 

The  process  of  making  the  pastes  seems  to  have 
been  to  first  model  the  design  carefully  in  clay,  to 
make  a  mould  from  the  clay,  and  to  cast  the  paste  in 
this  mould.  The  most  productive  period  of  this 
industry  seems  to  have  been  the  2nd  and  1st  cent.  B.C., 
though  it  flourished  also  before  and  after  that  time. 
This  period  coincides  with  the  somewhat  analogous 
branch  of  art  represented  by  a  series  of  small  and 
often  circular  reliefs  moulded  on  asM  and  certain 
other  vases  of  black  ware  which,  from  the  inscriptions 
on  them  and  from  the  character  of  the  art,  have  been 
assigned  to  the  middle  of  the  2nd  cent.  B.C.  The 
inscriptions  here  referred  to  are  in  Latin,  and  they 
show  that  Roman  workmen  at  the  date  in  question 
had  taken  in  hand  the  making  of  these  vases,  confining 
themselves,  however,  with  rare  exception,  to  the  re- 
production of  Greek  subjects  and  Greek  designs 
already  familiar  in  art. 

What  with  cameos,  then,  and  pastes,  neither  of 
which  were  suitable  for  sealing,  Greek  gem-engraving 
had  by  the  4th  and  3rd  cent.  B.C.  or  earlier,  reached 
a  stage  in  which  its  aim  and  occupation  must  have 
largely  been  to  minister  to  luxurious  tastes.  At  the 
same  time  there  was  still  a  fairly  large  demand  for 
actual  seals.  We  must  remember  that  a  Greek  did 
not  go  about  with  a  bunch  of  keys  in  his  pocket ;  in 
fact  he  had  no  pocket  to  put  them  in.  If  he  wanted 
to  keep  a  thing  safe  he  sealed  it  up  (Sophocles, '  Trach.' 
614),  and  trusted  to  the  punishment  which  befell  those 


Chap.  V.]         ENGKAVED  GEMS — CAMEOS. 


161 


who  broke  a  seal.  A  curious  instance  of  sealing  the 
doors  of  a  temple  occurred  at  a  festival  at  Elis,  during 
which  it  was  the  custom  to  place  three  empty  vases  in 
the  temple  of  Dionysos  in  presence  of  citizens  and 
strangers,  and  then  to  seal  the  doors,  the  priests  and 
any  stranger  who  chose  being  allowed  to  add  his  seal. 
Next  day  the  seals,  being  still  intact,  were  broken, 
and  the  three  vases  found  to  be  full  of  wine  (Pausanias, 
vi.  26,  1).  In  ancient  times  the  symbol  of  sealing  was 
employed  in  the  religious  mysteries  and  passed  down 
from  them  into  the  Christian  church.  Very  probably 
it  was  from  some  knowledge  of  this  that  our  early 
English  bishops,  at  a  time  when  classical  art  was 
unknown  in  this  country,  frequently  had  genuine 
ancient  gems  mounted  in  their  seals,  as  we  see  from 
the  many  impressions  of  them  that  are  still  attached 
to  deeds  of  lands  and  such  like  made  by  these  bishops. 
Generally  these  gems  are  commonplace  enough  in  point 
of  engraving,  but  they  show  how  even  in  very  dark  ages 
there  was  observed  to  be  a  certain  distinction  in  an 
ancient  engraved  gem.  It  is  to  be  remarked  also  in 
regard  to  the  large  cameos,  of  which  a  certain  number 
exist,  that  there  is  no  instance  on  record  of  the  finding 
of  any  such  gem,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  history 
of  some  of  them,  as  for  instance  the  Sainte-Chapelle 
cameo  in  Paris,  goes  back  to  the  middle  ages.  We 
may  reasonably  suppose  that  they  have  passed  directly 
from  hand  to  hand,  from  the  time  they  were  carved  to 
now.  The  Augustus  of  the  British  Museum  is  traced 
back  to  the  old  Strozzi  family  of  Florence.  The  two 
splendid  specimens  of  the  Carlisle  collection  (Frontis- 
piece and  PI.  XIII.}  had  probably  been  obtained  from 
Cardinal  Ottoboni  at  the  end  of  the  17th  cent. ;  beyond 
that  we  cannot  conjecture  what  their  history  had  been. 

M 


162     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


It  would  seem  to  be  a  maxim  that  when  there  is 
utility  in  a  thing,  that  thing  has  many  chances  of 
being  done  well.  In  the  matter  of  engraved  gems  it 
was  useful  to  be  possessed  of  one  or  more  of  them. 
There  were  many  reasons  why  it  was  an  additional 
advantage  to  have  engraved  on  your  gem  the  portrait 
of  some  distinguished  leader  or  patron,  or  person 
otherwise  admired.  The  Emperor  Augustus  had  a 
seal  with  the  portrait  of  Alexander  the  Great  on  it.1 
We  have  a  portrait  of  the  philosopher  Aristippos,  and 
must  suppose  that  it  had  been  worn  by  some  follower 
or  believer  in  his  system  of  philosophy ;  so  also  with 
our  portraits  of  Socrates,  and  Plato,  and  others.  But 
Alexander  himself  was  not  the  person  to  acknowledge 
any  leader  or  patron.  He  required  a  portrait  of 
himself  to  seal  with,  and  so  set  an  example  which 
ambitious  men  in  after  times  were  ready  enough  to 
follow,  as  we  know  from  many  interesting  specimens 
of  portraiture  on  gems.  Alexander  took  care  to  have 
his  portrait  well  engraved,  and  finding  in  Pyrgoteles 
an  artist  with  whose  skill  he  was  satisfied,  he  issued  a 
command  that  no  one  but  Pyrgoteles  was  to  be  allowed 
to  engrave  his  portrait.2    In  this  way  Alexander  gave 

1  Pliny,  4N.  H.,'  xxxvii.  10. 

2  Pliny,  6  N.  H.,'  vii.  125,  and  xxxvii.  8.  In  the  second  of 
these  passages  it  is  sometimes  supposed  that  Alexander  only  forbade 
the  engraving  of  his  portrait  on  emerald  by  others  than  Pyrgoteles. 
But  such  an  interpretation  is  quite  improbable,  as  Chabouillet 
rightly  thinks,  '  Gazette  Archeol.'  1885,  p.  349.  It  may  here  be 
mentioned  that  the  gem  with  a  portrait,  generally  called  Demos- 
thenes, and  signed  with  the  name  Dexamenos,  would,  if  it  were 
admittedly  a  true  gem,  be  an  instance  of  portraiture  in  the  4th 
cent.  B.C.  The  doubts  that  have  been  raised  appear  to  be  well 
founded.  See  Chabouillet,  '  Gaz.  Arch.'  1886,  p.  154.  This  gem 
is  engraved  in  the  '  Compte-rendu  de  la  Commiss.  Arch,  pour 
1868,'  PI.  1,  No.  12,  p.  54,  Stephani  there  praising  it  highly  as  a 


Chap.  V.]       ENGRAVED  GEMS — PORTRAITS.  163 


a  fresh  impetus  to  gem-engraving,  not  only  by  the 
introduction  of  portraiture,  but  also  by  his  manner  of 
singling  out  and  honouring  a  particular  artist.  From 
his  time  onward  two  things  became  more  and  more 
common:  good  portraits,  and  the  occurrence  of  en- 
gravers' names  on  gems. 

As  regards  existing  portraits  of  Alexander,  we  have 
a  small  gem  deserving  of  notice  for  the  clearness  and 
vivacity  with  which  the  general  likeness  is  rendered. 
Compared  with  the  marble  head  in  the  British 
Museum,  which  is  admittedly  the  best  known  portrait 
of  Alexander,  this  gem  is  doubtless  much  at  fault  in 
the  matter  of  style  and  in  subtle  indications  of 
character.  Possibly  these  defects  will  be  best  ex- 
plained by  taking  the  gem  to  be  a  work  of  the  time 
of  Augustus,  who,  as  has  been  said,  used  a  portrait  of 
Alexander  as  a  seal,  and  who  may  be  assumed  to  have 
had  his  seal  made  to  resemble  as  closely  as  possible 
an  original  by  Pyrgoteles. 

After  Pyrgoteles,  Pliny  ('  N.  H.,'  xxxvii.  1,  8)  names 
Apollonides,  and  Cronios,  and  Dioscurides,  the  last 
mentioned  having  engraved  the  portrait  of  Augustus 
with  which  subsequent  emperors  sealed.1  It  may  be 
taken  from  the  natural  connection  of  these  words,  first, 
that  Apollonides  and  Cronios,  like  the  others,  engraved 
portraits,  and  secondly,  that  they  lived  at  a  time 
intermediate  between  Alexander  and  Augustus,  possi- 
bly in  the  times  of  the  Diadochi,  when  portraiture  was 


genuine  stone ;  engraved  also  in  King's  1  Ant.  Gems  and  Rings  ' 
(1872),  i.  p.  400;  cf.  p.  xviii.,  where  this  gem  is  said  to  have 
been  found  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Hymettus. 

1  Dio  Cassius,  1  Hist.  Kom.,'  li.  3,  says  that  Augustus  had  first 
the  device  of  a  sphinx  and  afterwards  a  portrait  of  himself,  which 
subsequent  emperors  used,  except  Galba. 

M  2 


164     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


in  high  favour,  and  when  precious  stones  were  much 
valued.  Both  these  names  have  been  found  on  gems, 
but  in  no  case  without  reasons  for  suspecting  their 
antiquity.  Equally  there  are  gems  which  claim  to 
be  portraits  of  Ptolemaic  princes  or  princesses,  but  in 
general  there  prevails  uncertainty  as  to  their  being 
contemporary  works. 

This  brings  us  now  to  Dioscurides,  the  last  of  the 
engravers  mentioned  by  Pliny.  Among  the  many 
gems  bearing  his  name  it  is  easy  to  reject  some  as 
modern.  Others  again  may  be  distinguished  as 
modern,  so  far  as  the  inscription  of  his  name  is  con- 
cerned, the  antiquity  of  the  gem  itself  being  left  in 
abeyance  or  even  defended.  For  example,  in  the 
British  Museum  gem,  No.  1542,  with  the  head  of  a 
young  king,  possibly  Juba  II.,  and  signed  o>iIOlA? 
the  inscription  is  evidently  recent,  since  no  ancient 
engraver  would  have  made  the  mistake  of  not  reversing 
the  z  in  a  reversed  inscription.  Similarly  No.  1656,  an 
amethyst  portrait  intended  for  Augustus  and  signed 
AIOCKOPIA,  is  more  than  doubtful  as  to  the  inscription. 
But  it  has  been  argued  that  not  one  of  these  gems 
bearing  the  name  of  Dioscurides  is  ancient ;  1  and 
indeed  the  diversity  of  workmanship  among  them 
makes  it  hard  to  decide  which,  if  any,  are  true.  This 
difficulty  may  be  illustrated  by  comparing  the  two 
heads  of  Caesar,  in  the  British  Museum,  both  bearing 
the  name  of  Dioscurides,  the  one  engraved  on  jacinth 
(No.  1558),  the  other  on  sard  (PI.  XII.,  No.  18). 

1  Koehler,  4  Schriften.'  iii.  p.  149  ;  similarly,  Chabouillet  ('  Gaz. 
Arch.'  1886,  p.  155)  appears  to  have  little  confidence  in  any  of 
these  gems.  On  the  other  hand  Furtwaengler  ('  Jahrbuch'  iii. 
p.  218)  accepts  six  of  them,  but  not  either  of  the  head  of  Julius 
Csesar  in  the  British  Museum  (Nos.  1557-8,  p.  301). 


Chap.  V.]       ENGKAVED  GEMS — PORTRAITS. 


165 


Obviously  the  same  model  has  served  for  both.  But 
while  the  engraver  of  the  jacinth  has  bestowed  infinite 
pains  on  the  minutest  detail  with  the  result  of  driving 
the  artistic  sense  out  of  his  work,  the  engraver  of  the 
sard  (PI.  XII.,  No.  18)  has  treated  his  subject  with  a 
simplicity  and  absence  of  disturbing  details  which 
announce  in  him  artistic  powers  such  as  have  not  often 
been  displayed  by  other  than  ancient  engravers.  So 
far  the  sard  may  fairly  claim  to  be  antique  as  well  as 
beautiful.  Nor  indeed  does  the  laborious  minuteness 
of  the  jacinth  finally  dispose  of  it  as  comparatively 
modern,  since  that  quality  of  minuteness,  though 
hardly  with  so  bad  effect,  is  not  unfrequent  among 
really  ancient  gems.  Even  more  beautiful  in  work- 
manship than  the  sard  just  referred  to  is  another  sard 
representing  Mercury,  which  we  give  on  PI.  XII., 
No.  19.  This  gem  was  formerly  in  the  collection  of 
Lord  Carlisle. 

In  general  the  name  of  an  engraver  on  a  portrait 
gem  has  the  effect  of  awakening  some  degree  of  sus- 
picion, the  more  so  if  it  is  a  name  known  in  ancient 
literature,  like  that  of  Dioscurides  :  first,  because  on  the 
ancient  portraits  which  now  enjoy  the  greatest  reputa- 
tion there  are  no  such  signatures,  and  secondly, 
because  in  the  cinque-cento  period  the  much-practised 
art  of  portraiture  on  medals  may  well  have  influenced 
the  production  of  gems  professing  to  be  antique  and 
bearing  the  names  of  artists  known  from  ancient 
literature.  The  most  ambitious  of  the  ancient  por- 
traits now  known  are  to  be  found  among  the  cameos, 
such  as  the  three  in  the  British  Museum  (Augustus,  No. 
1560,  Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus,  as  Diana,  PI.  XIII., 
and  Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus,  as  Minerva  combined 


166     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


with  Liyia  as  Juno,  frontispiece)  ;  and  yet,  though  there 
exist  not  a  few  cameos  of  even  greater  ambition  and 
skill  than  these,  on  none  of  them  is  a  signature  to  be 
found.1  On  this  view  the  inscription  on  the  beautiful 
fragment  of  a  cameo,  in  the  British  Museum,  No.  1589, 
with  a  head  attributed  to  Germanicus,  and  bearing 
the  name  of  EniTYrXA[NOY,2  would  be  a  modern 
addition.  Before,  however,  applying  this  rule  rigidly 
to  cameos,  it  would  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  a 
large  number  of  late  Roman  gems  have  no  other 
ornament  than  inscriptions  wishing  good  luck  or  such 
like,  and  that  this  later  taste  for  inscribed  gems  may 
have  led  in  antiquity  as  well  as  in  more  recent  times 
to  the  addition  of  names — whether  those  of  engravers  or 
owners — to  gems  which  had  been  handed  down  among 
ancient  collectors.  The  same  consideration  should  be 
extended  to  intaglios,  except  perhaps  where  they  bear 
famous  names  like  those  of  Pheidias  or  Praxiteles,  in 
which  case  it  may  be  concluded  that  the  work  is 
either  that  of  a  Roman  slave  named  with  such  a  name, 

1  Cf.  Chabouillet, '  Gaz.  Arch/  1886,  p.  158.  Here  will  be  found, 
also  discussed  at  length,  the  formerly  Marlborough  gem,  bearing 
the  name  of  Eutyches,  who  styles  himself  a  son  of  Dioscurides. 
The  conclusion  arrived  at  is,  that  after  all  the  authenticity  of  the 
signature  is  not  proved. 

2  Bernoulli,  6  Komische  Ikonographie/  ii.  PI.  26,  Fig.  8,  p.  177. 
Kohler,  *  Schriften,'  iii.  p.  208,  accepts  this  inscription  of  Epityn- 
chanus  among  his  five  really  ancient  signed  gems. 

M.  Chabouillet  ('  Gaz.  Arch.'  1886,  p.  152),  referring  to  his 
opinion  in  1880,  that  out  of  the  257  reputedly  ancient  cameos  under 
his  charge  in  the  Bibliotheque  in  Paris,  only  two  were  signed,  and 
that  neither  signature  was  ancient ;  that  out  of  1756  intaglios, 
nine  had  signatures,  but  that  only  four  of  them  seemed  antique, 
now  proposes  to  reduce  these  four  to  one,  viz.  the  bust  of  Julia 
Titi,  signed  EYOAOC  enOlEI. 


Chap.  V.J 


ENGRAVED  GEMS. 


167 


or  of  a  modern  engraver.  No  distinction  between  the 
engraving  and  the  inscription  holds  good  there  as  it 
may  in  other  cases. 

The  gems  engraved  with  mottoes,  though  obviously 
of  a  late  date,  may  yet  be  regarded  as  in  some  sense 
the  successors  of  the  old  medicinal  ring,  familiar  in  the 
time  of  Aristophanes,  the  Sa/crvXcos  (papfjua/cirr]^,  which 
druggists  were  wont  to  supply  in  the  place  of  drugs  at 
apparently  a  very  cheap  rate,1  or  those  magical  rings 
which  could,  but  did  not,  reveal  the  future,  or  which 
might  render  the  wearer  visible  and  invisible  by  turns, 
like  the  ring  of  the  ancestor  of  Gyges.  Among  other 
beliefs  attaching  to  the  use  of  finger-rings  it  may  be 
mentioned,  that  according  to  Aulus  Gellius  (x.  10)  the 
early  Greeks,  and  the  Romans  also,  chose  to  wear  the 
ring  on  the  fourth  finger  of  the  left  hand,  because 
within  that  finger  was  a  nerve  which  led  direct  to  the 
heart.  This  information,  he  says,  had  been  first 
obtained  by  the  Egyptians  in  the  process  of  mummi- 
fying the  bodies  of  their  dead. 

The  habit  of  collecting  engraved  gems  for  the  sake 
of  their  beauty  is  known  to  have  been  occasionally 
indulged  in  by  private  individuals  in  ancient  Greece, 
particularly  among  musicians.  It  is  conceivable  that 
a  flute-player  w7ho  collected  gems  may  have  been 
influenced  chiefly  by  a  vain  desire  to  increase  the 
glitter  of  his  fingers  as  they  moved  on  the  flutes.  But 
it  is  a  more  probable  and  more  charitable  view  to 
assume  that  he  had  been  conscious  of  an  artistic 
affinity  between  his  own  art  and  that  of  the  gem- 
engraver.  Still  no  public  collection  of  gems  appears 
to  have  been  formed  in  Greece  with  the  view  of 

1  See  the  Scholiast  to  Aristophanes,  1  Plut.'  884  ;  and  the  quota- 
tion from  Antiphanes  given  by  Athenseus,  iii.  123  B. 


168       HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHtEOLOGY.      [Chap.  V. 


educating  the  general  taste.  The  nearest  approach  to 
anything  of  the  kind  was  to  be  seen  among  the 
treasures  dedicated  in  temples,  such  for  example  as 
in  the  Parthenon  at  Athens.  The  treasures  of  the 
Parthenon  have  perished,  but  several  inventories  of 
them  exist,  which,  dating  from  about  b.u.  400,  contain 
numerous  entries  of  gold  and  silver  rings  set  with  seals. 

Among  the  Romans,  in  the  last  century  B.C.,  gem- 
collecting  became  a  passion,  the  impulse  towards  it 
having  been  given  by  the  Cabinet  of  Mithradates, 
which  Pompey  carried  off  to  Rome  and  placed  among 
the  treasures  of  the  Capitol.  Following  this  example, 
Julius  Caesar  presented  six  cabinets,  or  dactyliothecse, 
in  the  temple  of  Venus  Genetrix,  and  Marcellus  one 
in  the  temple  of  Apollo  Palatinus.  Subsequently  the 
demands  for  works  of  this  class  so  far  exceeded  the 
natural  supply  that  no  species  of  fraud  was,  according 
to  Pliny  ('  Nat.  Hist.,'  xxxvii.  197),  more  lucrative  than 
the  manufacture  of  false  gems  in  the  shape  of  glass 
pastes  and  other  materials.  It  may  be  taken  that  this 
industry  was  chiefly  occupied  with  the  imitation  of 
those  subjects  and  designs  which  had  become  familiar 
and  admired  on  the  genuine  ancient  gems  which  it 
was  the  desire  of  the  collector  to  obtain.  To  this 
source  may  be  traced  in  a  large  measure  the  constant 
recurrence  of  the  same  design  and  the  same  manner  of 
treatment  which  strikes  the  student  who  has  examined 
a  number  of  public  or  private  collections.  Obviously 
gems  thus  produced  must  present  considerable 
difficulty  to  the  student.  They  have  not  only  to  be 
distinguished  from  the  older  gems  which  they  sought 
to  imitate,  but  also  from  comparatively  modern  gems 
made  expressly  and  with  much  skill  to  imitate  these 
ancient  imitations. 


Chap.  V.] 


ENGRAVED  GEMS. 


169 


With  the  Kenaissance  the  passion  for  collecting 
ancient  gems  revived,  and  has  remained  more  or 
less  in  force  ever  since.  Cabinets  formed  by  wealthy 
collectors  were  from  time  to  time  broken  up  and  dis- 
persed, ever  helping  to  form  new  cabinets.  A  field 
was  thus  opened  again  for  the  imitator ;  but  it  was  not 
till  towards  the  end  of  last  century  that  his  occupa- 
tion assumed  large  dimensions,  and  accordingly  gems 
which  can  still  be  traced  back  to  cabinets  formed 
previous  to  that  date  are  held  to  be  presumably  free 
from  any  charge  of  imitation. 

List  of  Gems  on  Pl.  XII. 
(All  in  British  Museum,  and  full  size?) 

1.  Bull,  of  Tiryns  type,  scaraboid.    Brit.  Mus.  Cat. 
No.  110.  Egypt. 

2.  Lion  attacking  bull;  scaraboid,  agate,  chalcedony. 

3.  Bull ;  scaraboid,  agate,  chalcedony. 

4.  Isis  and  Horus ;  scarab,  plasma.    Phoenician  style. 

Chiusi.    Hamilton  Gray  Coll. 

5.  Chariot;  scarab,  sard.    Brit.  Mus.  Cat.  No.  254. 

6.  Winged  fate ;  scarab,  sard.  Cyprus. 

7.  Achilles  seated;  scarab,  banded  agate.  Hamilton 

Gray  Coll. 

8.  Heracles  and  AchelOus ;  cut  scarab,  plasma. 

9.  Athena  Gorgophona ;  scarab  set  in  gold,  banded 
agate.    Amathus,  Cyprus. 

10.  Man  and  horse  ;  scarab,  banded  agate.  Macedonia. 

11.  Satyr ;  scarab,  agate.    Brit.  Mus.  Cat.  No.  289. 

12.  Daedalos ;  scarab,  inscribed  TAITVE  ;  sard.  Brit. 
Mus.  Cat.  No.  329. 

13.  Perseus  (V)   fastening    sandal;    scaraboid,  burnt 
carnelian.  Tarsus. 

14.  Athena  Parthenos ;  scaraboid  on  silver  hoop.  Cyprus. 
Arch.  Zeit.  1884,  p.  166. 


170     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  V. 


15.  Citharist ;   burnt  carnelian,  intaglio.     Brit.  Mus. 
Cat.  No.  555. 

16.  Girl   reading;   sard,   intaglio.     Brit.   Mus.  Cat. 
No.  556. 

17.  Maenad;  sard,  intaglio.    Brit.  Mus.  Cat.  No.  554. 

18.  Julius  Caesar;  sard,  signed  Dioscurides.    Brit.  Mus. 

Cat.  No.  1557. 

19.  Mercury,  holding  head  of  ram;  sard,  signed  Dios- 
curides.   Carlisle  Coll. 

20.  Diana  with  stag;  garnet,  signed  Heius.  Carlisle 

Coll. 

21.  Philoctetes ;  amethyst,  signed  Seleucos.  Carlisle 

Coll. 

22.  Medusa ;  plasma,  signed  Sosos.    Carlisle  Coll. 

23.  Portrait  of  old  man,  probably  of  the  Ptolemaic 
period;  chalcedony.    Carlisle  Coll. 

24.  Portrait,  female ;  garnet.    Carlisle  Coll. 


Engravers. 

For  specimens  of  their  work  see  '  Jahrbuch  des  Arch. 
Inst.,'  III.  and  IV.,  as  follows  : — 

Agathangelos,  JaJirbucJi,  III.  pi.  3,  fig.  9. 

Agathopous  .  .  III.  pi.  8,  fig.  15 ;  compare  gem  in 
Brit.  Mus.  No.  1552,  which  is  sus- 
pected. 

Anaxilas  .  .  .  III.  pi.  8,  fig.  12  ;  ibid.  p.  208,  where 
this  name  is  given  as  Herakleidas. 
On  gold  ring  in  Naples  Museum. 

Anteros  .  .  .  III.  pi.  10,  fig.  15 ;  compare  fragment 
of  cameo  in  Brit.  Mus.  from  Carlisle 
Coll.  signed  ANT[6Pnc  (?)]  6n[OIGI. 

Apollonios     .     .    III.  pi.  10,  fig.  8. 

Aristoteiches  .  .  III.  pi.  8,  fig.  2 ;  scarab  found  near 
Pergamon. 

Aspasios  .     .     .    III.  pi.  10,  fig.  10. 


Chap.  V.] 


ENGKAVED  GEMS. 


171 


Athenades,  Jahrbwch,  III.  pi.  8,  fig.  3,  found  at  Kertch. 


Athenion  . 

Aulus  . 

Boethos  . 
Cneius  (Gnaius) 

Dexamenos  of 

Chios 
Diodotos  . 
Dioscurides  . 


Epitynchanos 

Euodos 
Eutyches  . 
Felix  .     .  . 
Hems  . 


Herophilos 
Hyllos,  son  of 
Dioscurides 

Koinos 

Lucius 

Lycomedes 

Mycon 

Nicandros 

Olympios  . 


Onatas 
Onesas 


III.  pi.  3,  fig.  3  ;  pi.  8,  fig.  19 ;  IY. 
pi.  2,  fig.  1. 

IV.  pi.  2,  fig.  3.  See  gem  in  Brit. 
Mus.  No.  1130. 

III.  pi.  8.  fig.  21. 

III.  pi.  10,  fig.  6 ;  compare  gem  in 
Brit.  Mus.  No.  1281. 

III.  pi.  8.  figs.  6-9. 

IV.  pi.  2,  fig.  6. 

III.  pi.  8,  fig.  23,  in  Brit.  Mus.  (for- 
merly in  Carlisle  Coll. ;  see  our  pi. 
XII.,  fig.  19). 

III.  pi.  11,  fig.  14,  in  Brit.  Mus.  No. 
1557. 

III.  pi.  11,  fig.  1 ;  cameo  in  Brit.  Mus. 

No.  1589. 
III.  pi.  11,  fig.  4. 
III.  pi.  10,  fig.  3. 
III.  pi.  10,  fig.  7. 

III.  pi.  11,  fig.  7,  in  Brit.  Mus.,  for- 
merly in  Carlisle  Coll. ;  see  our  pi. 
XII.,  fig.  20. 

III.  pi.  11,  fig.  2. 

III.  pi.  10,  fig.  1;  cf.  III.  p.  112. 

YAAOC     AIOCKOYPIAOY  6nOI6L 

Cameo  in  Berlin. 
III.  pi.  10,  fig.  20. 

III.  pi.  10,  fig.  25. 

IV.  pi.  2,  fig.  2. 
III.  p.  317. 

III.  pi.  8,  fig.  14. 

III.  pi.  3,  fig.  7.    Eros  drawing  bow. 

Berlin — bought  in  Athens.  Praxi- 

telian  period. 
III.  pi.  8,  fig.  10. 
III.  pi.  8,  fig.  16,  17. 


172     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     |Chap.  V 


Pamphilos  Jahrbuch,  III.  pi.  10,  fig.  14. 

Pheidias,  .     .     .    III.  pi.  8,  fig.  13. 

Philemon  .     .     .    III.  pi.  lo,  fig.  5. 

Philon     .     .     .    HI.  pi.  8,  fig.  11.    On  silver  ring. 
Asia  Minor. 

Phrygillos     .     .    III.  pi.  8,  fig.  4. 

Polycleitos    .     .    III.  pi.  8,  fig.  28. 

Protarchos     .     .    III.   pi.  8,  fig.  20.  nPflTAPXO 
EriOIEI  occurs  on  a  cameo  of  Venus 
and  Cupid,  from  Bagdad,  belonging 
to  Dr.  W.  Hayes  Ward,  New  York. 

Quintus    .     .     .    HI.  pi.  10,  fig.  19. 

Eufus  ....    III.  pi.  11,  fig.  10. 

Saturninus    .     .    III.  pi.  11,  fig.  3. 

Semon.     .     .     .    HI.  pl.  3,  fig.  6. 

Skylax     .     .     .    HI.  pl.  10,  fig.  24. 

Solon  .     .     .     .    III.  pl.  11,  fig.  9. 

Sosos  ....    III.  pl.  8,  fig.  18;  in  Brit.  Mus. ;  see 
our  pl.  XII.,  fig.  22. 

Sostratos  .     .     .    III.  pl.  11,  fig.  8. 

Syries  (Dories?)  .    III.  pl.  8,  fig.  1. 

Teucros    .     .     .    III.  pl.  10,  fig.  13. 

Tryphon  .     .     .    III.  pl.  11,  fig.  5. 

To  these  we  may  add  Seleucos,  from  our  pl.  XII.,  fig.  21. 


Names,  not  of  Artists,  but  Possessors 
(according  to  Furtwaengler,  '  Jahrbuch,'  IV.  p.  64  fol.). 

Admon  occurs  on  Marlborough  and  Blacas  gems,  the 
latter  now  Brit.  Mus.  1312 :  Heracles  with  club  and 
skyphos.  All  others  with  this  name,  as  far  as  he  knows, 
are  false. 

Nicomacus.    Brit.  Mus.  specimens  modern. 

Phamakes.     The  Brit.  Mus.  gem  with  4>APN  (883) 


Chap.  V.]  ENGRAVED  GEMS.  173 


antique,  but  inscription  modern.  (Another  in  Brit.  Mus., 
recently  acquired  from  Amisus,  reads  <t>APNAKOV,  and 
has  a  figure  of  Fortuna  ;  quite  antique  in  all  respects. — 
A.  S.  M. 

Alpheos,  found  on  an  antique  cameo,  but  used  by 
forgers  for  artist's  name. 

Allion,  =  Dalion.  Name  read  "  Allion"  in  17th  cent, 
and  thereafter  forged,  but  Dalion  is  right. 


174    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VI. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 

Xatpero)  5'  6  AaldaXos  /cat  ra  AaidaXov  fjLLfirjka  Te^i/17/xaTa. 

Dio  Chrysostom,  Orat.  37. 

It  is  proposed  now  to  treat  of  sculpture  in  relief, 
that  being  a  branch  of  ancient  art  nearly  allied  to 
gem  engraving  and  vase  painting,  with  which  we  may 
by  this  time  be  supposed  to  have  become  familiar. 
Familiarity  with  designs  on  the  vases  will  at  least 
help  us  to  imagine  what  the  general  aspect  may 
have  been  of  certain  sculptures  in  relief,  of  which 
only  the  ancient  description  has  survived. 

We  have  already  had  several  occasions  of  referring 
to  the  influence  of  Assyria  and  Egypt  on  early  Greek 
art.  The  art  of  both  these  countries  was  eminently 
an  art  of  sculpture  in  relief.  From  both  a  long 
series  of  reliefs  has  survived.  Assyria  has  left  us  no 
sculpture  or  statue  in  the  round  worthy  of  being 
called  artistic.  Egypt,  undoubtedly,  has  furnished 
many  statues  worthy  of  admiration.  But  in  Egypt, 
also,  a  fascinating  element  of  her  art  is  to  be  found 
in  the  long  lines  of  bas-relief.  It  is  not  strange 
that  in  these  countries  bas-relief  was  the  favourite 
form  of  art.  Any  day  may  be  seen  how  in  Egypt  the 
exceeding  brightness  of  the  sunlight,  and  the  absence 
of  what  artists  call  atmosphere,  combine  to  present 
any  object  at  which  one  may  look  in  the  form  of  a 
silhouette  with  its  outlines  strongly  marked,  but  with 


Chap.  VI.] 


SCULPTURE  IN  EELIEF. 


175 


no  sufficient  indication  of  the  details.  A  string  of  camels 
or  a  herd  of  goats  as  they  pass,  display  vividly  the 
contours  of  each  individual  of  the  group;  the  main  action 
or  movement  of  each  goat  or  camel  stands  out  clearly 
cut  against  the  light.  But  it  is  only  with  difficulty 
that  we  perceive  the  details  of  form.  The  first  and  chief 
impression  is  that  of  a  very  low  flat  relief,  in  which  the 
outline  plays  the  principal  part.  What  we  thus  observe 
in  nature  at  any  moment,  is  what  we  see  in  the  whole 
of  the  Egyptian  sculpture  in  relief.  Natural  effects 
were  probably  much  the  same  in  Assyria  as  in  Egypt. 
At  all  events  we  have  there  the  same  phenomenon  of 
excellence  in  bas-relief,  so  far  especially  as  the  outer 
contours  are  concerned,  and  the  facility  of  rendering 
action  and  movement  in  animal  life. 

In  Greece  all  this  was  changed.  There  we  have  an 
intensely  bright  sunlight,  no  doubt,  but  it  is  accom- 
panied by  an  atmosphere  of  the  very  finest  quality, 
in  which  every  detail  of  form  is  presented  with 
vivid  clearness  and  distinctness.  If  mere  outline 
or  contour  in  the  human  or  animal  figure  loses  its 
strikingness,  it  gains  in  intelligibility,  because  every 
movement  of  it  is  seen  to  be  dependent  on  the 
movement  of  muscle  and  bone.  The  figure  presents 
itself  with  organic  completeness. 

When  such  is  the  state  of  the  case,  it  may 
seem  strange  that  the  Greeks  also  should  have 
excelled  in  sculpture  in  relief.  But  in  fact  one 
cannot  think  of  Greek  bas-relief  and  try  to  account 
for  its  origin,  without  being  driven  back  to  a 
consideration  of  the  Oriental  influence  which  had 
been  exercised  on  the  Greeks  at  a  time  when  their 
artistic  gifts  were  just  emerging  into  activity.  We 
remember  that  Greek  bas-relief  consists  for  the  most 


176     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI, 


part  of  long  sculptured  friezes,  such  as  those  of  the 
Parthenon  and  Mausoleum,  which,  when  we  think  of 
them  apart  from  their  distinctive  beauty,  convey  the 
impression  of  having  been  rolled  out  mysteriously  in 
marble  from  some  large  engraved  cylinder.  The 
impression  made  by  a  cylinder  would  give  the  idea  of 
a  processional  composition  readily  enough,  while  the 
amount  of  relief  in  an  ordinary  impression  would 
suggest  to  the  sculptor  the  extent  of  projection  which 
he  should  employ  in  the  marble. 

We  need  not,  however,  suppose  that  the  early 
Greeks  were  guided  by  the  impressions  of  cylinders 
alone,  when  in  fact  the  prevailing  form  of  sculpture 
in  relief  with  which  they  were  acquainted,  both  in 
Assyria  and  Egypt,  was  that  of  a  long,  narrow  band 
with  a  design  of  figures  moving  more  or  less  along 
its  length.  So  firmly  was  this  idea  implanted  in  the 
sculpture  of  Assyria  and  Egypt,  that  often  when 
a  wall  surface  of  some  height  was  required  to  be 
sculptured,  and  when  thus  an  opportunity  occurred  of 
distributing  a  composition  of  figures  over  its  whole 
extent,  we  find,  instead  of  that,  a  number  of  parallel 
bands  or  friezes,  one  above  the  other.  The  early 
Greek  sculptors  may  not  have  gone  so  far  as  that ;  but 
that  they  had  obtained  their  idea  of  a  frieze  sculptured 
in  low  relief  from  Assyria  and  Egypt,  is  beyond 
doubt.  From  Assyria  they  were  taught  also  to 
believe  that  a  sculptured  frieze  should  be  bright  in 
colour.  They  had  before  them  such  models  as  we  see 
in  the  long  bands  of  bronze  embossed  with  proces- 
sional representations  of  the  triumphs  of  Shalmaneser 
II.,  which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum. 

On  no  other  theory  can  we  understand  how 
the  frieze   of  the   Parthenon   came  to  be  richly 


Chap.  VI.] 


SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


177 


coloured ;  still  less  how  the  bridles  of  the  horses 
came  to  be  made  of  glittering  bronze  and  attached  to 
the  marble,  as  we  know  positively  they  were.  The 
moment  we  admit  the  influence  of  these  early  bronze 
reliefs  in  suggesting  to  the  Greeks  their  notions  of 
what  sculpture  in  relief  should  be,  we  come  prepared 
to  understand  the  rich  colouring  and  bright 
accessories  of  metal,  in  which  they  indulged  for  a 
while.  We  recognise  another  important  element  of 
sculpture  in  relief,  namely,  that  the  height  or 
projection  of  the  relief  was  not  determined,  in  the 
first  instance,  by  the  tastes  of  individual  artists,  but 
really  by  the  nature  of  the  bronze  itself,  which  did 
not  allow  of  being  beaten  out  beyond  a  fixed  limit. 
In  the  nature  of  marble  there  is  nothing  to  suggest 
the  notion  of  working  a  relief  on  its  face.  It  is  a 
solid  aggregate  substance,  and  may  very  well  suggest 
a  figure  in  the  round,  but  not  a  relief.  It  is  one 
thing  to  have  the  limits  of  what  may  or  may  not  be 
done  determined  by  the  judgment  of  individuals  ;  it 
is  quite  another  and  a  much  better  thing  to  have 
them  fixed  by  an  unalterable  law  in  the  nature  of  the 
materials  that  are  employed. 

We  speak  of  Oriental  influence  in  Greece,  as  if  it 
had  been  quite  casual,  had  come  unsolicited.  We 
forget  that  from  the  9th  to  the  6th  cent.  B.C.  Greece 
was  largely  under  the  rule  of  men  of  great  energy  and 
talent  for  government,  whom  it  was  usual  to  style 
tyrants,  and  of  whom  one  at  least,  Polycrates,  the 
tyrant  of  Samos,  is  known  to  have  taken  as  his  model 
an  Oriental  despot,  with  armies  of  workmen,  whom  he 
kept  employed  in  colossal  undertakings,  such  as 
piercing  a  tunnel  through  a  hill.  As  to  the  tyrants 
in  Greece  proper,  we  hear  much  of  their  activity,  we 

N 


178     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VI. 


know  that  they  stirred  the  energies  of  the  people  in 
many  ways,  but  no  one  points  out  any  of  their  works 
that  have  survived,  except  the  tunnel  of  Polycrates. 

Now,  the  beginning  of  the  tyrants  would  coincide 
with  the  date  we  have  arrived  at  for  the  earliest  class 
of  engraved  gems  and  the  vases  found  with  them.  Let 
us  see  whether  it  would  not  also  agree  with  what  is 
regarded  as  the  oldest  piece  of  sculpture  in  relief 
which  Greece  has  to  show — the  huge  group  of  two 
lions  sculptured  above  the  gate  to  the  citadel  of 


Fig.  59.    Lions  in  relief  above  gateway  at  Mycense. 


My  cense  (Fig.  59).  Precisely  the  same  subject  occurs 
on  gems  of  the  class  found  at  Mycenae,  and  as  the 
sculpture  of  the  gateway  is  generally  admitted  to  be 
of  the  same  age  as  the  gems,  the  elate  we  have  arrived 
at  for  them  will  hold  good  for  it  also.  Is  it  possible 
then,  that  the  colossal  walls  of  Mycenae  and  Tiryns, 
the  huge  vaulted  tombs  of  Mycenae,  Orchomenos  and 
elsewhere,  were  the  work  of  the  tyrants  of  which  we 
read  so  much,  and  know  so  little  ?  If  it  were  so,  we 
should  then  be  able  to  follow  the  stream  of  Greek  art 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF.  179 


backward  without  interruption  to  a  powerful  source 
in  an  age  of  great  popular  activity. 

Meanwhile  it  maybe  useful  to  examine  those  Assyrian 
reliefs  in  bronze  to  which  reference  has  been  made 
(Fig.  60).  In  the  9th  cent.  B.C.,  a  king  of  Assyria. 
Shalmaneser  II.,  caused  to  be  sculptured  and  erected 
at  a  place  called  Balawat,  a  huge  bronze  gate,  on 
which  were  represented  in  relief  a  series  of  victories 
he  had  won  over  his  enemies. 

The  designs  on  the  Balawat  gate  are  of  a  narrative 


Fig.  60.    From  Balawat  Gate,  in  Brit.  Mus. 


or  epic  kind.  A  series  of  events  unfold  themselves 
in  long  continuous  lines  of  battle,  siege,  spoliation, 
prisoners.  At  one  place  we  see  the  military  operation 
of  crossing  a  river  on  a  pontoon  bridge ;  at  another  a 
battering-ram  at  work  against  the  wall  of  a  town ;  the 
vanquished  are  to  be »  seen  prostrating  themselves 
before  the  victorious  king.  Chariots  are  being 
driven  in  haste,  sheep  and  oxen  are  carried  off  ; 
prisoners  are  impaled  or  mutilated.  In  general  the 
human  figures  are  of  one  uniform  type.    Even  the 

n  2 


180     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGrY.     [Chap.  VI. 


king  is  not  much  more  conspicuous  than  his  men. 
Among  the  animals,  oxen  and  sheep  are  fairly  well 
studied  from  nature.  But  the  horses  are  a  curious 
breed,  if  the  artist  has  not  been  much  misled.  They 
carry  their  heads  in  the  air  like  giraffes.  On  the 
whole  there  is  no  great  attraction  in  these  reliefs  from 
a  purely  artistic  point  of  yiew.  Where  they  do 
interest  us  is  in  the  historical  position  which  they 
occupy  with  reference  to  the  subsequent  art  of 
Greece.  One  might  call  these  reliefs  an  illustrated 
gazette  of  the  victories  of  Shalmaneser  II.  We  miss 
on  them  the  dramatic  spirit,  precisely  as  we  miss  it 
to  a  great  extent  in  the  Homeric  poems.  At  times, 
no  doubt,  Homer  is  strikingly  dramatic.  Among 
other  instances,  Lessing  pointed  out  long  ago  how 
in  describing  the  shield  of  Achilles,  Homer  was 
essentially  dramatic,  inasmuch  as  he  shows  us  how 
each  separate  design  on  the  shield  was  fashioned; 
whereas  Virgil,  in  describing  the  shield  of  iEneas,  fell 
into  the  pure  epic  form,  describing  the  scenes 
represented  on  it  as  if  they  were  so  many  events 
passing  in  review.  But  in  general  the  Homeric  poems 
are  of  a  purely  narrative  or  epic  kind.  Incident 
follows  incident  in  long  narrow  lines. 

Without  offering  a  definition  of  what  is  dramatic 
and  what  not  in  art  and  poetry,  one  observation  will  be 
enough  for  our  purpose.  It  is  this.  When  we 
compare  epic  with  dramatic  poetry  we  find  this 
difference,  that  the  scenes  in  the  epic  are  presented 
to  us  on  the  authority  of  the  poet,  who  takes  the  place 
of  an  eye-witness  of  them.  In  dramatic  poetry,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  action  is  carried  on  before  our  eyes. 
We  are  invited  to  be  witnesses  of  it,  and  are  expected 
to  sympathise  with  it  throughout.    The  dramatic  poet 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


181 


requires  our  presence  as  spectators,  and  must  reckon 
with  that  fact.  He  must  so  plan  and  concentrate  his 
action  that  our  attention  shall  be  kept  strained. 
Whether  he  employ  pathos,  unexpected  incidents,  or 
comic  situations,  his  first  task  is  to  keep  our  attention, 
and  to  move  our  feelings.  In  short,  to  the  dramatist 
the  spectator,  or  reader  for  the  matter  of  that,  is  an 
essential  element,  while  the  epic  poet  is  himself  the 
spectator. 

Applying  this  observation  to  works  of  art,  we  see 
how  completely  the  designs  on  the  Balawat  gate  are 
of  a  narrative  kind.  The  numerous  incidents  are 
paraded  before  us,  as  so  many  facts  with  which  we  may 
sympathise  or  not  as  we  please.  They  are  what  the 
spectator  actually  saw.  It  is  curious  to  compare  those 
other  famous  bronze  gates  of  the  Baptistery  in  Florence 
which  Ghiberti  fashioned.  The  ancient  method  of 
long  lines  of  incident  has  disappeared.  The  space  is 
broken  up  into  panels.  Each  panel  contains  a  subject 
complete  in  itself.  Each  subject  contains  figures 
enough  for  itself.  We  are  apparently  not  needed  as 
spectators.  Take,  for  instance,  the  panel  with  Abraham 
sacrificing  Isaac;  surely  that  incident  might  easily 
have  been  rendered  with  dramatic  force.  It  would 
have  been  enough  to  have  shown  us  the  group  of  the 
patriarch  and  his  son  at  the  altar,  and  to  have  left  us 
to  our  natural  emotion.  That  would  have  been 
dramatic.  But  instead,  Ghiberti  gives  us  a  secondary 
group  of  onlookers,  who  watch  the  scene  from  a  little 
distance.  This  group  cofnes  between  us  and  our  right. 
It  is  for  us  to  be  the  onlookers,  and  we  resent  the 
intrusion  of  that  group  till  it  dawns  upon  us  that  the 
artist  wished  to  represent  his  scenes  as  illustrative  of 
a  great  narrative.  That  was  his  main  task,  but  like 
Homer  and  Milton  he  often  breaks  through  the  strict 


182     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


conditions  of  the  epic  or  narrative  form  of  representa- 
tion, and  gives  us  groups  of  a  purely  dramatic 
character. 

It  is  noticeable  that  among  the  enemies  of  Shal- 
maneser  on  the  bronze  gate  is  a  nation  or  tribe  which, 
from  the  inscription,  is  known  to  have  lived  around  Mt. 
Ararat ;  that  is,  in  a  northern  part  of  Asia  Minor.  What 
is  striking  about  these  people  from  Mt.  Ararat  is  that 
they  are  armed  with  pure  Greek  helmets  and  even,  as 
some  think,  with  the  still  more  Hellenic  greaves  on 
their  legs.  At  all  events,  the  helmets  are  enough  to 
cause  surprise.  We  cannot  suppose  that  this  people 
in  the  9th  cent.  B.C.  had  got  the  idea  of  their  helmet 
from  the  Greeks ;  but  we  can  suppose  without  any 
effort  that  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  got  the  idea  from 
this  warlike  people,  at  some  later  time,  or  even  as 
early  as  the  9th  cent.  B.C.,  if  that  is  necessary  to  the 
argument.  It  was  the  chief  distinction  of  the  Carian 
mercenaries  from  Asia  Minor  who  fought  in  Egypt  in 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.  that  they  were  armed  with  helmets 
and  greaves.  They  were  believed  to  have  invented 
this  armour  for  themselves ;  but  it  would  now  seem 
more  probable  that  they  had  found  it  already  invented 
and  in  use  in  Asia  Minor  when  they  first  settled  there. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  here  that  the  oldest  Greek 
poem  we  possess,  the  Iliad,  turns  on  a  war  in  Asia 
Minor,  in  which  the  Greeks  were  the  aggressors  and  a 
native  population  the  defenders.  That  such  a  war 
ever  took  place  in  the  locality  now  called  Troy,  or 
indeed  elsewhere,  is  a  question  we  may  pass  over,  with 
this  observation,  that  Homer  could  not  have  sung  it  as  he 
has  done  in  the  Iliad  without  the  aid  of  some  previous 
poems  or  ballads  on  a  kindred  subject  to  show  him  the 
way  in  so  great  a  task.  The  conception  of  a  great 
poem  like  the  Iliad  is  of  too  organic  a  structure  to 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


183 


spring  suddenly  into  existence.  It  has  first  to  grow 
and  to  develop,  till  at  the  right  moment  a  great  genius 
takes  it  up.  There  were  brave  men  before  Agamem- 
non, says  Horace,  and  no  poet  sang  them.  But  that 
only  means  that  no  such  song  has  survived.  No  doubt 
these  brave  men  were  sung  of,  and  no  doubt  Homer 
knew  the  songs.  We  may  assume  these  songs  to  have 
been  founded  on  still  older  poems  or  ballads  which 
had  come  westward  from  the  older  civilizations  of 
Asia  Minor  or  of  Assyria.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  the  ballads  had  come  westward  in  the 
shape  of  verse.  The  scenes  and  incidents  on  which 
they  turned  might  equally  have  been  expressed  in 
works  of  art,  and  as  such  have  been  more  intelligible 
than  prose  or  verse  to  an  early  Greek  poet. 

Let  us  take  for  example  Homer's  description  of  the 
shield  of  Achilles  in  the  Iliad.  We  cannot  imagine 
that  there  ever  had  existed  such  a  shield,  and  equally 
we  cannot  imagine  how  a  poet  could  have  invented  such 
a  shield  without  abundance  of  material  to  guide  him 
in  the  description  of  it.  The  story  of  the  shield  is 
forced  into  the  Iliad  like  a  thing  composed  for  some 
other  occasion.  Achilles  has  to  allow  his  foolish 
friend  Patroclos  to  borrow  his  armour  for  the  fight. 
Patroclos  loses  his  life  and  the  armour  as  well.  To  get 
new  armour  for  Achilles,  the  god  Hephsestos  must  set 
himself  with  hammer  and  forge  to  produce  a  shield  of 
vast  elaboration  at  the  very  moment  when  haste  was 
never  more  urgent  if  the  tide  of  war  was  to  be  turned. 
Evidently  the  poet's  mind  was  full  of  material  for  a 
fine  conception  complete  in  itself.  Grant  him  to  have 
seen  one  of  those  bronze  shields  which  we  have  still 
from  Assyria  decorated  with  figures  of  animals,  allow 
him  to  have  been  familiar  with  the  inlaying  of  metals 
as  we  are  familiar  with  it  on  works  of  the  Phoenicians 


184     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


which  have  survived  from  about  his  day,  admit  that 
the  few  instances  in  which  he  speaks  of  Phoenician 
and  Egyptian  handicraft  represent  a  moderate  acquaint- 
ance with  contemporary  products  of  this  kind ;  above  all 
grant  him,  as  we  must,  that  there  had  come  down  to 
him,  originally  from  an  Eastern  and  inland  living 
nation — which  can  hardly  have  been  other  than 
Assyria — a  legend  in  which  a  god  was  described  as 
making  an  artistic  represention  of  the  world  and  the 
general  order  of  its  affairs,  its  ploughing,  sowing, 
reaping,  its  pastoral  life,  the  vintage  with  its  mirth, 
life  in  towns  with  its  crimes  and  trials,  its  marriages 
and  rejoicings,  its  wars  and  terrors.  Grant  him  this, 
which  is  surely  a  modest  request  in  the  circumstances, 
and  we  have  no  more  difficulty  as  regards  the  shield 
of  Achilles.  It  is  a  modest  request,  because  in  the 
legends  which  survive  on  the  terra- cotta  tablets  of 
Assyria  are  several  of  equal  importance  with  that 
which  we  are  assuming  Homer  to  have  followed. 

Homer,  in  fact,  bears  direct  testimony  to  his  having 
been  influenced  by  works  of  art,  when  he  says  that 
the  dancing  scene  on  the  shield  was  like  the  chorus 
made  by  Dsedalos  for  Ariadne.  We  are  not  surprised 
at  any  reference  of  the  poet  to  Phoenician  art.  But 
this  reference  to  a  Greek  sculptor  is  more  than  a 
surprise.  Daedalos,  we  are  told  elsewhere,  was  a 
legendary  person,  and  he  may  even  have  been  that  to 
Homer  himself,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  existence 
of  a  celebrated  work  of  sculpture  in  Crete  did  not 
seem  to  be  anything  strange  to  the  poet.  We  know 
from  the  records  of  art  that  the  first  place  in  Greece 
in  which  sculpture  attained  eminence  was  the  island 
of  Crete.  Cretan  sculptors  were  sought  after  as  early 
as  the  end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  Crete  has  furnished 
a  considerable  share  of  the  early  engraved  gems  of 


Chap.  VL]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


185 


which  we  have  spoken.  More  than  that,  in  quite 
recent  years  there  have  been  found  in  the  Grotto  of 
Zeus,  on  Mt.  Ida  in  Crete,  a  number  of  bronze  shields 
richly  embossed  with  reliefs,  which  plainly  indicate 
the  work  of  Phoenician  craftsmen  copying  Assyrian 
designs.  The  date  which  has  been  assigned  to  these 
shields  is  the  8th  or  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  on  the  ground 
that  they  were  probably  imported  from  the  Phoenicians 
of  Cyprus,  and  that  the  8th  and  7th  cent.  B.C.  was  the 
great  period  of  Assyrian  influence  in  Cyprus.1  In 
the  British  Museum  is  a  bronze  shield  found  near  lake 
Van  in  Armenia.  It  also  is  embossed  with  concentric 
rows  of  lions  and  bulls,  but  the  art  is  ruder  than  on 
the  Cretan  shields.  It  bears  the  name  of  Sargon,  and 
thus  belongs  to  the  period  when  he  and  his  successors 
ruled  in  Cyprus  in  the  8th  cent.  B.C.,  as  we  understand. 

We  have  elsewhere  described  and  endeavoured  to 
restore  the  shield  of  Achilles  ('  Hist,  of  Greek  Sculpt.,' 
i.  pi.  1),  and  may  here  be  allowed  to  pass  on  to  notice 
the  contrast  presented  by  another  celebrated  work  of  art 
which,  like  the  shield,  exists  only  in  a  literary  descrip- 
tion. We  mean  the  richly-sculptured  chest  in  gold, 
ivory,  and  cedar,  in  which  it  was  said  Kypselos,  the 
tyrant  of  Corinth,  had  been  concealed  in  his  infancy 
from  persons  who  desired  to  take  his  life.  It  is  to  no 
great  poet  that  we  owe  this  description,  but  yet  the  chest 
itself  was  not  unconnected  with  the  charms  of  poetry. 
For  Pausanias,  in  whose  pages 2  the  description  occurs, 

1  See  'Museo  Italiano,'  ii.,  p.  690  fol.,  and  Pis.  1-12.  PL  1  is  a 
purely  Assyrian  design  which  has  passed  through  the  mind  of  a 
non- Assyrian  artist — most  probably  a  Phoenician.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  many  figures  of  sphinxes  on  these  bronze  shields 
which  indicate  a  knowledge  of  Egyptian  art  also.  There  is,  in  fact, 
much  in  these  bronzes  to  remind  us  of  the  Polledrara  tomb  at 
Yulci,  the  date  of  which  falls  in  the  latter  half  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C. 

2  v.  17. 


186     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


has  preserved  a  few  of  the  verses  which  common  opinion 
ascribed  to  the  Corinthian  poet,  Eumelos.  These  verses 
are  purely  descriptive  of  the  sculptured  groups  to 
which  they  were  attached,  in  archaic  characters,  and 
written,  he  says,  in  the  manner  called  boustrophedon, 
that  is,  in  lines  going  alternately  from  right  to  left 
and  left  to  right.  But  though  the  verses  are  purely 
descriptive,  the  fact  of  a  poet  having  been  employed 
to  compose  them  suggests  a  suspicion  that  Homer's 
elaborate  description  of  the  shield  may  not  have  been 
without  influence  in  bringing  about  a  subsequent 
association  of  poets  and  artists,  as  we  see  it  in  this 
case  of  Eumelos,  and  subsequently  in  the  epigrams 
composed  by  Simonides  for  works  of  sculpture. 

The  chest  of  Kypselos,  like  the  shield  of  Achilles, 
is  crowded  with  design  ;  but  there  is  this  obvious 
difference,  that  whereas  in  Homer  no  names  are  given 
to  the  figures  represented,  on  the  chest  it  is  all  the 
other  way.  Every  person  has  his  name.  It  is  a  sort 
of  handbook  of  Greek  legend,  and  in  this  respect  we 
may  class  with  it  two  other  ancient  works  of  sculpture, 
the  throne  of  Apollo  at  Amyclse,  and  the  reliefs  by 
Gitiadas  on  the  brazen  temple  of  Athena  at  Sparta. 
As  to  date,  the  chest  of  Kypselos,  if  the  story  that 
Kypselos  was  hid  in  it  in  his  infancy  is  true,  would 
reach  back  towards  700  B.C.  But  the  story  goes  so 
much  on  the  lines  of  the  hero  Perseus,  and  for  the  rest 
is  so  manifestly  connected  with  the  identity  of  the 
word  kypsele,  a  chest,  and  the  family  name,  that 
there  may  be  some  doubt  whether  the  chest  had  not 
been  produced  at  the  instance  of  the  descendants1  of 

1  Plato,  '  Phsedrus,'  12,  mentions  a  statue  at  Olympia  dedicated 
by  the  Kypselidae,  and  states  that  it  was  made  of  plates  of  metal 
beaten  out  and  nailed  together  (jcr^vprpiaTop),  as  was  the  manner 
before  the  introduction  of  casting.    We  know  that  this  colossal 


Chap.  VL]  SCULPTURE  IN  BELIEF. 


187 


Kypselos,  by  whom  it  was  dedicated  in  Olympia.  It 
would  thus  belong  to  nearer  the  end  than  the  beginning 
of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  Its  shape  may  be  taken  to  have 
been  oblong,  like  a  chest  ornamented  with  embossed 
plates  of  silver,  found  in  a  tomb  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C., 
at  Vetulonia  in  Etruria.  Apparently  the  designs  were 
arranged  on  three  sides  of  it  in  five  parallel  bands. 

It  would  take  us  too  far  to  describe  the  scenes 
here  in  detail.1  We  must,  however,  notice  the  sug- 
gestion that  as  many  of  the  groups  are  isolated  in 
subject,  so  also  they  had  been  isolated  from  each  other 
and  enclosed  by  ornamental  borders,  like  those  on  a 
set  of  primitive  gold  ornaments  found  in  recent  years 
at  Corinth,  on  some  pieces  of  bronze  plating  from 
Olympia,  and  on  a  silver  girdle  from  Cyprus.2 
Apparently  the  cable  border  was  much  in  favour  in 
those  early  days,  and  it  may  well  be  that  the  great 
frequency  with  which  this  border  occurs  on  archaic 
Etruscan  scarabs  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  in- 
fluence of  these  early  Creek  works  in  metal.  These 


statue  was  of  gold.  Possibly  both  it  and  the  chest  were  dedicated 
by  Periander  in  the  end  of  the  7th  or  early  part  of  the  6th  cent. 
B.C.    See  Klein,  '  Kypsele  der  Kypseliden,'  p.  5. 

1  I  have  given  a  proposed  plan  for  the  arrangement  of  the 
subjects  in  the  4  Hist.  Gr.  Sculpt. '  i.,  p.  63,  with  accompanying 
table.  Since  then  M.  Klein  has  proposed  certain  modifications  of 
my  arrangement ;  but  these  modifications  are  so  slight  that  Prof. 
Klein  is  surely  not  entitled  to  take  so  much  credit  to  himself 
('  Kypsele  der  Kypseliden,'  p.  22),  for  what  had  been  clearly 
pointed  out  in  '  Gr.  Sculpt.,'  2nd  ed.,  i.  pp.  71-72. 

2  Engraved,  1  Arch.  Zeit.,'  1884,  PI.  8 ;  compare  also  Pis.  9-10 
with  similar  gold  ornaments  from  Athens  and  elsewhere.  In  some, 
the  patterns  and  rows  of  rude  figures  and  animals  resemble  closely 
the  vases  of  the  Dipylon  style.  For  the  bronze  fragments  from 
Olympia,  see  '  Ausgrabungen  zu  Olympia,'  iv.,  PL  25  ;  and  for  the 
Cyprus  girdle,  now  in  the  Brit.  Mus.,  see  '  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  PL  8 
and  p.  93,  where  it  is  assigned  to  the  first  half  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 


188     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


Etruscan  gem  engravers  preferred  to  take  their  sub- 
jects from  the  Greek  legends,  especially  such  as 
embraced  only  small  groups  of  figures,  two  or  three 
at  most.  In  borrowing  them  from  the  Greeks  they 
would  borrow  also  the  most  constant  forms  of  border, 
though  in  fact  that  was  unnecessary,  since  the  gem 
itself  presented  a  natural  border,  as  the  Greeks  in 
their  gem-engraving  mostly  perceived. 

From  such-like  materials — that  is,  from  the  subjects 
represented  on  archaic  gems  and  painted  vases,  to- 
gether with  the  actual  remains  of  bronze  reliefs  dating 
from  the  7th  cent.  B.C. — it  is  possible  also  to  obtain  a 
general  notion  of  certain  other  archaic  works  which 
were  celebrated  in  antiquity  but  are  now  lost.  We 
refer  to  the  sculptures  of  Gitiadas  at  Sparta  on  the 
statue  of  Athene  Chalkioikos,  and  on  the  bronze- 
covered  walls  of  the  temple  where  it  stood ;  and  next 
to  the  throne  of  Apollo  at  Amyclse  by  the  sculptor 
Bathycles  of  Magnesia.  As,  however,  we  have  else- 
where (<  Hist,  of  Greek  Sculpt.,'  2nd  ed.,  i.  pp.  87  and  90) 
discussed  fully  the  literary  records  concerning  these 
two  famous  works  and  the  probabilities  of  restoring 
them,  we  will  pass  on  to  a  new  and  more  advanced 
stage  of  bronze  work  in  relief,  and  thereafter  turn 
back  a  little  to  reliefs  in  stone  and  marble. 

During  the  6th  cent.  B.C.,  so  far  as  we  can  judge, 
there  was  not  much  done  in  the  way  of  reliefs  in 
bronze.  That  was  an  age  of  colour ;  sculpture  in 
marble,  fresco-painting,  and  vase-painting,  had  started 
on  a  new  life.  Even  the  sculpture  in  marble  was 
brightly  coloured;  the  taste  was  for  bright,  strong 
colours,  the  one  set  against  the  other.  But  reliefs 
in  bronze  could  not  compete  in  the  taste  of  the  day 
with  mural  pictures,  or  the  innumerable  painted  vases  ; 
and  so,  while  these  arts  were  making  great  strides,  and 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTUKE  IN  BELIEF.  189 


winning  public  favour  at  all  hands,  reliefs  in  bronze 
were  in  a  great  measure  set  aside.  The  movement  in 
favour  of  bright  colours  had  to  run  its  course.  We  do 
not  suggest  that  it  was  mere- 
ly a  movement  in  favour  of 
bright  colours  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, there  was  combined 
with  it  an  ambitious  effort 
towards  largeness  of  style, 
not  at  first,  but  gradually  as 
the  movement  advanced. 

An  illustration  of  the  im- 
provement that  was  reached, 
so  far  as  concerns  relief  in 
bronze,  is  to  be  seen  in  a 
small  figure  of  Athene  (Fig. 
61).  It  was  found  in  the 
course  of  excavations  on  the 
Acropolis  of  Athens,  and  be- 
longs to  a  period  previous  to 
the  destruction  of  the  Acro- 
polis by  the  Persians,  480 
B.C.  The  bronze  retains  very 
obvious  traces  of  the  fire  on 
that  occasion  :  we  have  called 
it  a  relief,  but  it  is  in  fact 
two  reliefs  placed  back  to 
back,  showing  both  sides  of 
the  figure.  That  itself  is 
not  strange,  because  for  many 
purposes  it  might  be  con- 
venient to  have,  instead  of  a  statuette  in  the  round, 
a  thin  figure  like  this,  which  should  represent  both 
sides  of  the  goddess  in  relief.   What  is  strange  is  that 


Fig.  61.     Athene.  Belief 
in  bronze,  Athens. 


190     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


no  other  example  has  survived.  We  have  statuettes  and 
reliefs,  but  no  amalgamation  of  the  two  as  here.  At  the 
same  time  it  may  be  worth  mentioning  that  we  have  a 
•  bronze  relief  in  the  British  Museum,  where  we  see  two 
figures  of  Athene  seated  face  to  face,  the  one  being 
the  exact  counterpart  of  the  other  (Fig.  78).  This 
bronze  of  the  two  Athenes  has  been  long  known,  and 
some  singular  theories  have  been  offered  as  to  the 
meaning  of  these  two  figures  of  one  and  the  same 
person  sitting  placidly  contemplating  each  other.  We 
believe  the  explanation  to  be  simply  this,  that  if  these 
two  figures  were  removed  from  the  background  and 
placed  back  to  back,  as  in  the  case  of  the  bronze  in 
Fig.  61,  we  should  have  just  one  complete  relief  of 
Athene  made  to  be  seen  from  both  sides.  As  it  is, 
they  form  at  once  a  finely-balanced  group  and  a 
warning  against  composition  to  the  neglect  of  com- 
mon sense. 

But  to  return  for  a  moment  to  the  bronze  Athene : 
it  is  clear  that  something  of  the  archaic  manner  has 
not  yet  been  got  rid  of.  For  instance,  the  tallness 
of  the  figure.  Tallness  and  spareness  of  form  were 
two  fairly  constant  features  in  archaic  sculpture. 
Of  course  there  were  exceptions,  and  some  very 
notable  ones.  Another  characteristic  was  the  passion 
for  gracefulness.  We  shall  see  other  examples 
of  it  in  the  archaic  marble  statues  found  on  the 
Acropolis  of  Athens.  The  frequent  references  to 
"  charis "  in  the  older  poets  show  that  a  refined 
taste  must  have  been  universal.  This  archaic  grace- 
fulness expended  itself  on  the  draperies,  on  the  face 
and  hair,  appearance  and  demeanour.  In  this  bronze 
we  still  see  an  affectation  of  gracefulness  in  the 
drapery.     In  its  way  it  is  beautiful ;  it  is  more 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF.  191 


beautiful  than  anything  that  had  been  done  before. 
It  surpasses  the  older  manner  even  on  its  own  ground 
of  carefully  studied  drapery. 

More  than  that,  the  whole  type  of  figure  is  of  a 
larger  and  more  ideal  mould.  In  particular,  the  face 
has  attained  a  fulness  in  its  forms  and  a  command 
over  expression  unknown  before.  Let  us  add  a  belief 
that  it  was  amid  sculpture  of  the  style  of  this  bronze 
Athene  that  the  earlier  part  of  the  career  of  Pheidias 
was  spent.  It  was  directly  on  figures  of  this  type  that 
he  built  up  his  great  ideal  of  the  Athenian  goddess. 

Up  to  now  we  have  had  no  mention  of  sculpture  in 
stone  or  marble,  except  the  mention  of  the  well- 
known  relief  of  two  lions  above  the  gateway  of 
Mycenae  (Fig.  59),  which  represents,  so  to  speak,  the 
city  arms,  and  is  more  like  the  huge  impression  of  a  seal 
than  spontaneous  work  in  sculpture.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  not  improbable  that  marble  had  been  occasion- 
ally sculptured  to  present  an  appearance  resembling 
the  reliefs  on  the  long  plates  of  bronze,  or  tablets 
pressed  out  in  terra-cotta  from  moulds.  But  in  general 
it  may  be  maintained  that  sculpture  in  marble  was 
comparatively  late  in  coming  into  favour.  Nor  was 
this  singular  ;  we  have  only  to  remember  the  richly- 
toned  bronze,  the  gold  and  cedar,  ivory  and  ebony, 
not  to  speak  of  the  coloured  terra-cotta,  in  which 
artistic  designs  had  hitherto  been  executed,  to  see 
how  little  attraction  there  would  be,  to  tastes  thus 
formed,  in  the  pure  and  cold  marble.  The  notion  was 
that  if  marble  must  be  used,  then  it  also  should  be 
richly  coloured.  Nor  were  bright  colours  dispensed 
with,  until  they  had  become  quite  incompatible  with 
growing  refinement  in  the  modelling  of  forms  and 
surfaces. 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


193 


By  the  end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  Greek  sculpture 
had  begun  to  develop  rapidly  in  skill  of  execution 
and  in  the  composition  of  scenes  in  which  many 
figures  were  represented.  The  traditional  habit  of 
working  in  relief  at  once  assisted  this  development, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  retarded  the  growth  of  a  spirit 
of  observation  of  nature.  It  should  be  noticed  also 
that  up  to  then  the  chief  occupation  of  art  had  been 
the  production  of  objects  to  please  private  tastes.  It 
had  not  yet  challenged  public  attention  to  any 
great  degree,  and  thus  had  not  been  able  to  profit 
by  the  free  criticism  of  the  whole  people.  It  had 
never  been  roused  into  examining  itself  and  its 
powers. 

One  of  the  oldest  examples  of  public  sculpture 
properly  so-called,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  remains  of  a 
Doric  temple  at  Assos  in  the  Troad,  of  which  parts  of 
the  frieze  and  the  metopes  have  survived.  They  are 
now  distributed  between  the  Louvre,  Boston  in 
America,  and  Constantinople.  The  restoration  here 
given  (Fig.  62)  is  due  to  the  American  excavations  at 
Assos  in  1881,  and  is  the  work  of  Mr.  Thatcher  Clarke. 
This -temple  was  singular  in  having  both  frieze  and 
metopes,  the  one  immediately  above  the  other.  On 
the  frieze  are  bulls  and  lions  grouped  as  on  the  vases 
of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  reminding  us  that  the  old 
Oriental  habit  had  not  yet  been  wholly  got  rid  of. 
The  relief  (Fig.  63)  is  low  and  carefully  executed  as  of 
old ;  nor  are  the  principal  subjects  new  altogether.  We 
have  seen  one  of  them  before  on  an  island  gem :  it  is 
the  contest  of  Heracles  and  Nereus,  carried  on  to  the 
astonishment  of  certain  sea-nymphs,  who  dread  the 
consequences  to  their  friend  Nereus.  Their  manner 
of  expressing  astonishment  and  fear  is  to  extend  their 

o 


194    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


arms  with  the  palms  of  their  hands  open,  to  run  away, 
and  yet  be  unable  not  to  look  back. 

Observe  the  skilful  use  that  has  been  made  of  the 
narrow  space  of  the  frieze  to  bring  in  a  group  of 


colossal  proportions,  such  as  those  of  Heracles  and 
.Nereus,  with  the  purpose  of  accounting  more 
explicitly  for  the  excitement  and  emotion  of  the 
nymphs.    And  yet  at  the  foundation  of  the  design 


Chap.  VI.] 


SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


195 


lies  the  just  observation  that  a  figure  like  Nereus, 
half  fish  and  half  man,  could  only  be  wrestled  with  on 
the  ground.  Acting  upon  this  observation,  the 
sculptor  obtained  largeness  for  his  principal 
characters.  The  rest  of  the  front  frieze  is  occupied 
with  the  legend  of  the  visit  of  Heracles  to  the 
centaur  Pholos,  the  banquet,  and  the  fight  with 
the  centaurs.  If  the  restoration  is  correct,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  sculptor,  to  obtain  a  centralizing 
group,  and  so  to  separate  the  frieze  into  artistically- 
balanced  parts,  has  interjected  in  the  centre  a  group 
of  two  sphinxes,  who  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
subject.  He  required  artistic  harmony  at  all  cost. 
Clearly,  he  was  contemporary  with  those  early  vase 
painters  who  were  beginning  to  introduce  human  or 
half-human  figures  along  with  the  animals  which  they 
had  been  trained  to  reproduce,  and  had  not  yet  been 
able  to  abandon. 

But  Athens  also  has  of  late  years  furnished  some 
interesting  examples  of  archaic  sculpture  in  relief, 
which  suggest  a  comparison  with  the  frieze  of  Assos. 
We  refer  to  the  remains  of  certain  pediments  or 
gables  which  appear  to  have  decorated  two  small 
temples  on  the  Acropolis.  These  sculptures  are 
executed  in  stone  (poros),  and  have  been  brightly, 
not  to  say  staringly,  painted  with  strong  colours. 
That  is  to  say,  the  sculptures  themselves  are 
brightly  coloured,  while  the  background  against 
which  thev  stand  is  left  in  the  natural  white  colour  of 
the  stone,  just  as  in  the  early  vases  the  figures 
painted  in  black,  purple,  and  white  stand  out  against 
the  natural  red  colour  of  the  vase,  or  against  a  ground 
prepared  by  a  creamy  white  slip.  On  one  of  these 
pediments  (Fig.  64)  the  subjects  represented  have  been 

o  2 


196    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VI. 


chosen  from  the   labours  of    Heracles.1     On  the 


left  he  is  seen  wrestling  with  Nereus,  very  much  as 
on  the  frieze  of  Assos,  while  on  the  right  is  a  giant 
ending  in  the  body  of  a  serpent.     On  the  other 

1  '  Mittheilungen  d.  Inst.  Arch.  Athen.,'  x.  p.  237.  '  Ephenieris 
Arch.'  1884,  PI.  7,  figs.  1  and  5,  and  1885,  p.  234 ;  «  Mittheilungen 
d.  Inst.  Arch.  Athen.,'  xi.  PI.  2,  p.  61. 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTUKE  IN  BELIEF. 


197 


pediment  (Fig.  65),  belonging  to  a  second  temple, 
the   principal    group   seems   to    have   been  Zeus 


slaying  Typhon,  who  is  figured  as  a  long  monster 
with  three  heads.1     Back  to  back  with  Zeus  is 
Heracles  slaying  some  monster,  whose  body  ended 
1 '  Mittheilungen  d.  Inst,  Arch.  Athen.,'  xiv.  (1889),  Pis.  2-3,  p.  74. 


198     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


Fig.  66.    Stele  of  Aristocles. 
Athens.    (Warrior  of  Marathon.) 


in  a  serpent,  possibly  Echid- 
na. The  beards  of  Typhon 
are  painted  bright  blue.  In 
the  sculptures  themselves 
there  is  a  certain  rude  force 
which  commands  respect, 
while  in  the  matter  of  com- 
position an  obvious  success 
has  been  achieved  in  the 
choice  and  adaptation  of 
figures  suitable  by  their 
forms  to  occupy  the  peculiar 
shape  of  the  angles  of  a  pedi- 
ment. In  both  pediments 
the  movement  is  from  the 
centre  towards  the  angles, 
as  opposed  to  the  later  form 
of  composition  at  JEgina, 
on  the  Parthenon,  and  at 
Olympia,  where  the  move- 
ment is  towards  the  centre. 
The  date  of  the  sculpture 
can  hardly  be  later  than 
650  B.C.,  and  may  be  half  a 
century  earlier. 

Archaic  sculpture  in  relief 
reached  its  final  and  com- 
pleted stage  at  Athens  in 
the  beautiful  and  brightly- 
coloured  stele,  known  as  the 
warrior  of  Marathon  (Fig. 
66).  Nowhere  is  the  archaic 
love  of  minute  detail  in  the 
structure  of  the  bones  of  the 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


199 


knees  and  toes,  or  in  the  folds  and  patterns  of  the 
costume,  more  charmingly  preserved.  According  to 
the  inscription,  this  stele  was  the  work  of  one 
Aristocles. 

We  pass  now  to  the  consideration  of  some  instances 
of  archaic  sculpture  in  high  relief.  We  had  known 
from  Pausanias  (vi.  19,  3)  that  the  city  of  Megara  in 
Sicily  had  erected  at  Olympia  one  of  those  small 
temple-like  buildings  which  they  called  treasuries. 
We  had  known  also  that  the  pediment  of  this  treasury 
was  adorned  with  a  representation  of  a  battle  between 
gods  and  giants.  In  the  excavations  at  Olympia  some 
parts  of  this  composition  were  recovered,  just  enough 
to  illustrate  the  artistic  style  of  the  whole.  It  is  to 
these  fragments  that  we  refer ;  the  relief,  as  we  have 
said,  is  higher  than  was  hitherto  known;  the  skilful 
rendering  of  the  figures  indicates  a  very  marked 
advance  on  what  we  have  hitherto  been  considering ; 
they,  in  fact,  form  an  admirable  introduction  to  what 
we  are  next  to  expect  under  the  influence  first  of  high 
relief,  and  next  of  sculpture  in  the  round,  as  applied 
to  the  pediments  of  temples. 

.First,  then,  we  have  the  metopes  from  the  oldest 
temple  at  Selinus  in  Sicily.  These  metopes  are 
sculptured  in  very  high  relief,  and  this  is  true  in 
one  sense,  but  not  in  another.  It  is  true  in  the 
sense  that  the  figures  project  far  from  the  back- 
ground ;  but  then  these  projecting  parts  are  not 
sculptured  with  care,  except  on  the  face  of  them. 
The  artist  has,  in  fact,  treated  the  face  of  his  metopes 
exactly  in  the  old  manner  of  low  flat  relief,  and  has 
merely  made  it,  so  treated,  stand  well  forward  from 
the  background.  In  one  of  the  metopes  he  has 
obtained  a   bold   effect;   it   represents  a  quadriga 


200    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


standing  to  the  front ;  lie  has  sculptured  the  fronts  of 
his  horses  as  if  they  were  four  pieces  of  flat  relief,  and 
he  has  brought  them  forward  from  the  background  to 
the  extent  which  was  required  by  the  length  of  their 
bodies.    A  more  interesting  example,  however,  is  the 


Fig.  67.    Perseus  cutting  off  head  of  Medusa.    Metope  of  oldest 
temple  at  Selinus. 


metope  which  represents  Perseus  cutting  off  the  head 
of  the  Gorgon  Medusa  (Fig.  67).  The  difficulty  and 
danger  of  the  enterprise,  requiring,  as  it  did,  the  aid  of 
Athene  to  even  so  valiant  a  hero  as  Perseus,  lay  in 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTUKE  IN  RELIEF. 


201 


this :  that  any  one  seeing  the  face  of  Medusa  was  instant- 
ly turned  to  stone.  It  "is  not  easy  to  understand  how- 
anyone  should  ever  have  wished  to  see  a  face  so  very 
unattractive.  Still,  that  is  the  story.  You  will  see 
that  both  Perseus  and  Athene  are  careful  to  turn 
their  heads  round  and  look  away,  while  the  Gorgon 
seems  equally  anxious  to  show  her  face  to  them. 
These  are  points  in  the  legends,  and  one  forgets  for 
the  moment  how  aptly  the  sculptor  has  availed  him- 
self of  them  to  turn  all  the  faces  full  to  the  front,  and 
thus  gain  the  greatest  possible  extent  of  flat  sculptured 
surface  for  his  metope. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  winged  horse, 
Pegasus,  which  did  not  spring  from  the  neck  of 
Medusa  till  after  the  head  was  removed,  is  already 
present  in  the  group  in  the  shape  of  a  small  foal. 
That  is  an  instance  of  what  is  not  uncommon  in  early 
Greek  art.  The  sculptor  supposed  that  he  could  tell 
two  stages  of  an  incident  in  one  representation.  In 
the  metope  of  Perseus  and  Medusa  the  traditional 
method  of  working  on  the  surface  is  even  more  con- 
spicuous than  in  the  quadriga  metope ;  the  figures  are 
so  grouped  as  to  leave  as  little  as  possible  of  the 
background  visible.  The  Athene  is  turned  full  to 
the  front,  the  Perseus  nearly  so,  while  the  Medusa, 
falling  on  one  knee  and  holding  the  Pegasus  at  her 
side,  covers  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  back- 
ground, and  thus  the  whole  composition  presents  a 
large  surface,  projecting  well  to  the  front,  which  the 
sculptor  was  not  able  to  treat  otherwise  than  in  the 
traditional  manner  of  low  relief,  notwithstanding  that 
in  realizing  the  scene  his  imagination  has  shown  itself 
vigorous  and  truthful. 

With  the  metope  of  Selinus  may  be  compared  the 


Fig.  68.    Lower  part  of  column  from  the  archaic  temple  of 
Diana,  Ephesus.    Dedicated  by  Croesos.    British  Museum. 


Chap.  VL] 


SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


203 


fragmentary  reliefs  in  marble  which  have  survived 
from  the  archaic  temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  the 
temple  which,  as  we  know  from  Herodotus  (i.  79), 
owed  most  of  its  columns  to  the  munificence  of 
Croesos.  That  temple  had  been  set  fire  to  by 
Herostratos,  and  only  a  few  fragments  now  remain. 
They  were  discovered  under  the  foundations  of 
the  later  temple  which  was  erected  on  the  same  site. 
In  the  later  temple  it  was  known  that  a  number 
of  the  columns  had  been  sculptured  (columns  caelatae) 
on  the  lowermost  drum,  if  not  higher  up.  But  it 
has  now  been  ascertained  that  the  same  had  been 
the  case  in  the  older  temple.  Fig.  68  gives  a 
restoration  of  part  of  one  of  these  archaic  columns 
containing  the  dedication  of  Croesos,  f3a[cn\€vs] 
Kp[otcro?]  ave\dr)K\ev.  The  sculpture  may  therefore  be 
dated  some  time  previous  to  B.C.  560.  Its  close  re- 
semblance to  the  oldest  Selinus  metopes  confirms  the 
date  arrived  at  for  them. 

A  number  of  fragments  were  also  found  belonging 
to  the  cornice  of  this  burnt  temple,  part  of  which  has 
been  by  these  means  restored  in  the  British  Museum. 
The  peculiarity  of  this  cornice  is  that  between  the 
lions'  heads  (Xeovro/ce^aXac),  which  carried  off  the 
rain  from  the  roof,  the  spaces  were  occupied  by  groups 
in  low  delicate  relief.  I  have  conjectured  that  the 
sculptor  may  have  been  Bupalos,  the  son  of  Archermos. 

The  tendency  of  Greek  sculpture  in  Asia  Minor  was 
in  these  early  timqs  towards  a  certain  voluptuousness 
which  appeared  in  the  richness  of  the  costumes  and 
the  heaviness  of  expression  in  most  of  the  faces. 
Nowhere  are  these  characteristics  more  striking  than 
in  the  well-known  reliefs  of  the  Harpy-tomb,  of  which 
we  give  here  (Fig.  69)  one  slab,  in  which  a  young 


204    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


warrior  is  handing  over  his  armour  to  the  god  of  the 
lower  world,  under  whose  chair  is  a  bear  ;  or  the  seated 
figure  may  be  a  Lycian  king,  for  whom  also  the  bear 
was  an  appropriate  symbol. 


Fig.  69.    Slab  of  Harpy-tomb  from  Xanthos  in  Lycia.    Brit.  Mus. 
(Gr.  Sculpt.,  2nd  ed.,  i.  pi.  2.) 


We  have  left  behind  the  period  in  which  art 
found  those  subjects  the  most  agreeable  where  feel- 
ing and  passion  had  passed  over  into  action  more 
or  less  violent,  according  to  the  general  law  "that 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  BELIEF. 


205 


feeling  passing  a  certain  pitch  habitually  vents 
itself  in  bodily  action."  We  have  seen  how  the 
art  of  that  period  took  its  colour,  so  as  to  speak, 
from  the  stormy  fighting  times  in  which  the  artists 
lived,  and  how  the,  constant  delineation  of  large 
groups  of  figures  engaged  in  violent  action  had  led 
to  technical  skill  in  the  rendering  of  the  human 
form,  its  movements,  armour  and  costume.  We  have 
reached  now  the  stage  when  sculptors  set  to  work  to 
reconcile,  as  Hegel  says,  the  inner  with  the  outer  life 
of  man,  his  emotions  and  his  thoughts  with  his  bodily 
form ;  that  is  to  say,  the  ideal  stage  such  as  we  see  it 
in  the  sculptures  of  the  Parthenon. 

Notice  certain  efforts  which  were  made  before  pre- 
cisely the  right  path  to  idealism  was  hit  upon.  The 
sculptures  from  the  temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia  illus- 
trate both  the  merits  and  defects  of  these  efforts. 
We  give  here  part  of  the  west  pediment  (PL  XIV.), 
observing  that  these  sculptures  though  partly  executed 
in  the  round,  yet  on  the  whole  represent  the  principles 
of  relief.  Instead  of  minuteness  of  detail  and  faith- 
fulness of  observation,  we  have  here  a  sort  of  defiance 
of  these  things ;  the  proportions  of  a  figure  are 
often  very  far  wrong,  while  the  details  of  anatomy 
are  treated  with  more  or  less  of  indifference.  On 
the  other  hand,  where  archaic  art  had  failed  was 
in  the  masterly  conception  of  the  figure  as  a  whole, 
and  as  organically  free.  Here  the  sculptors  of 
Olympia  won  a  grand  success.  They  worked  out  a 
conception  of  the  human  figure  the  like  of  which  had 
not  been  seen  before  in  any  age,  or  in  any  country, 
so  noble  and  simple  is  it  in  its  type.  We  have  seen 
something  of  the  same  kind  on  the  early  red  figure 
vases,  contemporary  with  these  sculptures,  and  it  is 


206     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


not  too  much  to  assume  that  both  the  yases  and  the 
sculptures  had  been  deeply  indebted  to  the  great 
fresco  painters  of  the  day,  of  whom  Polygnotos  was 
the  chief.  The  large  scale  on  which  the  frescoes 
were  painted,  and  the  rapidity  of  execution  necessary 
to  the  process  of  fresco,  were  conditions  which  could 
not  but  drive  a  painter  of  genius  into  largeness  of 
conception  and  style  with  neglect  of  details.  The 
sculptors  of  Olympia  struck  out  in  the  same  line  with 
a  large  and  noble  conception  of  the  figure  ;  but  they 
ought  to  have  known  that  their  art  imposed  no 
conditions  of  haste  or  rapidity  of  execution,  and 
allowed  no  similar  excuse  for  negligence  of  detail. 
Quite  the  contrary,  the  art  of  sculpture  allows  no 
negligence ;  at  the  same  time  there  is  this  to  be  said, 
that  the  sculptures  of  the  pediments  of  Olympia  are 
in  a  great  measure  treated  as  a  composition  in  relief, 
and  not  as  a  composition  of  figures  in  the  round. 
This,  and  a  free  use  of  colour,  brought  about  an  arti- 
ficial approach  to  the  conditions  of  painting.  We  do 
not  say  that  the  sculptors  intentionally  deceived  them- 
selves in  this.  What  they  did  was  to  evade  the 
difficulty  that  faced  them,  and  to  cling  to  the  older 
traditions  of  working  in  relief  while  abandoning  its 
traditions  of  minuteness  and  faithfulness. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  notice  here  some  of  the 
principles  of  sculpture  in  relief  as  established  by  the 
practice  of  the  Greeks.  One  of  the  most  frequent 
terms  in  connection  with  sculpture  in  relief  is  the 
word  "plane,"  by  which  is  meant  the  thickness  by 
which  the  objects  represented  are  raised  from  the 
background.  A  relief  has  but  one  plane  when  the 
figures  rest  directly  on  the  background.  Experience 
has  shown  that  it  is  not  wise  to  go  beyond  two  or 


Chap.  VL]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF.  207 


three  planes  superposed.  But  even  this  is  hardly 
permissible  if  the  sculpture  is  to  be  exposed  to  a 
strong  direct  light,  because  then  the  shadows  cast  by 
figures  on  one  plane  will  fall  on  and  confuse  the 
figures  on  the  plane  behind,  a  thing  which  the  Greeks 
constantly  sought  to  avoid.  The  difficulty  may 
be  understood  by  imagining  a  man  standing  full  to 
the  front,  with  his  arms  folded  on  his  breast.  In  a 
relief  his  arms  will  be  in  a  plane  nearer  to  the  spectator 
than  his  body,  and  if  they  are  sculptured  in  their  full 
natural  thickness  they  will  cast  heavy  shadows  on  the 
body,  and  obscure  many  details  of  its  form.  But  if  the 
body  is  only  presented  in  low  relief,  it  is  thus  deprived 
of  the  compensating  power  of  casting  still  heavier 
shadows  on  the  background,  and  would  thus  be  seen  at 
an  enormous  disadvantage  compared  with  the  arms. 
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  reduce  the  thickness  of  the 
arms  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  thickness  of  the 
body  is  reduced.  That  was  what  the  Greeks  frequently 
did.  But  we  may  assume  that  they  did  not  like  it, 
because  many  of  the  attitudes  of  the  figures  in  Greek 
reliefs  have  been  chosen  with  a  studied  desire  to  get 
the  arms  extended  in  one  manner  or  another  away 
from  the  body,  so  that  they  may  retain  much  of  their 
natural  thickness,  or  at  all  events,  cease  to  disturb 
the  body  with  their  shadows.  And  it  is  thus  interest- 
ing to  see  that  what  we  often  admire  in  the  attitudes  of 
Greek  figures  in  relief,  has  originated  in  an  endeavour 
to  overcome  a  natural  difficulty.  Again,  if  we  place 
a  figure  in  profile  in  relief,  his  shoulder  will  be  much 
nearer  to  us  than  his  head.  If  treated  naturally  the 
head  and  shoulder  will  be  on  two  different  planes.  To 
avoid  this  the  projection  of  the  shoulder  ought  to  be 
reduced.    But  the  Greeks  frequently  took  another 


208     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


course.  They  cut  away  the  background  behind  the 
shoulder  and  the  rest  of  the  body,  so  that  the  figure 
presented  its  front  on  one  plane  towards  the  spectator, 
but  gained  its  natural  proportion  of  thickness  back- 
wards into  the  ground  of  the  relief.  Instances  of  this 
are  to  be  seen  on  the  frieze  of  the  Mausoleum,  and  of 
the  temple  of  Phigaleia,  but  apparently  none  on  the 
Parthenon  frieze.  To  prevent,  then,  the  different 
parts  of  a  composition  from  getting  mixed  and 
confused,  each  of  them  must  have  a  general  projection 
which  will  render  it  in  some  sort  independent  of  the 
elements  surrounding  it  or  touching  it.  With  this  in 
view  the  Greek  sculptors  saw  that  it  was  necessary  to 
keep  down  interior  reliefs,  and  to  attenuate  within  the 
contours  everything  that  would  come  into  collision 
with  the  effect  of  the  contour,  so  that  the  light  might 
glide  easily  over  the  surfaces,  and  the  general  outline  of 
the  figures  or  groups  might  detach  itself  with  precision. 

To  turn  now  to  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon. 
Parts  of  it,  as  is  well  known,  have  been  destroyed, 
other  parts  are  still  on  the  building,  but  have  been 
worn  and  injured  by  the  long  action  of  weather. 
The  remainder  is  in  the  British  Museum,  and  is  one 
of  the  chief  glories  of  that  institution  (PI.  XV.).  The 
meaning  of  the  frieze  was  to  represent  a  Panathenaic 
procession — one  of  those  great  spectacles  with  which 
the  Athenians  had  become  familiar  at  intervals  of  four 
years. 

The  immediate  purpose  of  the  ceremony  was  to 
accompany  the  victims,  consisting  of  cows  and  sheep, 
which  were  to  be  sacrificed  on  the  Acropolis  to 
Athene,  the  protecting  goddess  of  the  city.  To  give 
solemnity,  beauty,  and  dignity  to  the  event,  all  the 
resources  of  the  city  were  called  in.    All  classes  of 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTUEE  IN  RELIEF.  209 


the  community  sent  their  best :  rich  men,  their  sons 
mounted  on  horses  which  vied  with  their  riders  in 
beauty  and  action ;  old  men,  whose  aspect  had 
withstood  their  years,  came  as  witnesses  to  the  merits 
of  a  careful  and  honourable  life;  maidens,  whose 
grace  of  demeanour  marked  them  out  among  their 
comrades,  were  there  to  attend  the  sacrifice. 

What  Pheidias  had  to  do  in  those  circumstances 
was  in  general  terms  to  represent  a  compact  procession 
advancing  towards  a  place  of  sacrifice  where  was 
seated  an  assembly  of  deities  ;  he  had  to  arrange  this 
procession  round  the  four  sides  of  a  temple,  confining 
it  to  a  narrow  frieze  along  the  top  of  the  cella  wall. 
To  obtain  unity  of  effect,  he  adopted  the  conven- 
tionalism of  giving  in  the  main  two  views  of  the 
procession,  almost  as  if  it  were  being  seen  from  both 
sides  of  the  road  as  it  advanced.  As  seen  from  each 
side  the  long  line  of  procession  advances  towards  the 
east  front,  with  a  movement  which  passes  from  the 
rapidity  of  horsemen  and  chariots  to  the  slow  pace  of 
men  and  boys  leading  the  victims  as  it  approaches  the 
front.  Then  we  have  some  music  from  youths  playing 
on  flutes,  and  lyres ;  but  it  must  have  been  low  and 
faint.  It  seems  to  impart  something  like  a  notion  of 
organic  structure  to  the  Parthenon,  when  we  consider 
how  an  ancient  Athenian,  as  he  stood  looking  up  at 
one  of  the  long  sides  of  the  frieze,  and  knowing  that 
the  other  half  of  the  procession  was  sculptured  on 
the  opposite  wall  of  the  building,  must  have  almost 
imagined  the  Parthenon  itself  to  be  included  in  the 
moving  and  stirring  scene. 

It  was  not,  however,  the  meaning  of  the  artist  to 
represent  exactly  any  one  such  procession.  That 
would  have  resulted  in  a  record  more  or  less.  He 

p 


210     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


had  to  conceive  what  might  have  before  been,  and 
what  might  in  the  future  be,  the  marked  features  of 
such  a  procession,  and  out  of  these  elements  he  had 
to  compose  an  ideal  which  never  would  be  literally 
accurate,  but  always  would  be  spiritually  true.  He 
left  out  of  his  design  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
and  central  features  of  the  procession,  the  bringing  of 
a  new  embroidered  robe  to  the  goddess,  spread  out 
like  a  sail  on  the  mast  of  a  boat  mounted  on  wheels. 
Yet  that  celebrated  incident  of  the  new  robe  to 
Athene  is  not  lost  sight  of.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  but 
stripped  of  its  picturesqueness.  We  are  led  to  a 
point  of  time  in  the  procession  when  the  robe  had 
been  removed  from  the  boat  on  wheels  at  the  foot  ot 
the  Acropolis,  and  had  been  carried  up  the  Acropolis 
to  the  place  where  it  is  received  by  the  priest  and 
priestesses,  while  at  a  little  distance  advance  with 
solemn  mien  the  maidens  who  had  woven  and 
embroidered  the  robe.  We  now  know  from  inscrip- 
tions found  on  the  Acropolis  that  the  maidens  on  the 
Parthenon  frieze  are  those  who  had  made  the  robe. 
They  were  known  by  the  apparently  archaic  title  of 
ipyaaTLvcu,  or  workers,  and  to  judge  by  their  names 
belonged  to  the  Eupatrid  families.  The  inscriptions 1 
state  that  the  maidens  had  made  the  robe,  that  they 
had  accompanied  it  in  the  procession  in  due  order, 
and  with  a  demeanour  described  as  most  beautiful  and 
graceful,  and  that  finally  they  subscribed  for  a  silver 
vase  to  be  dedicated  to  Athene  as  a  memorial  of  their 

1  See  Kohler,  6  Mittheilungen  d.  Inst.  Arch,  in  Athen.,'  viii. 
p.  61,  who  there  publishes  the  inscription  in  Pet  worth  House, 
Sussex,  which  I  sent  him.  Since  then  another  fragment  has  been 
found  on  the  Acropolis,  and  is  given  by  Foucart  in  the  6  Bull,  de 
Corr.  Hellen.,'  1889,  p.  170. 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTUEE  IN  RELIEF.  211 


office.  The  maidens  are  therefore  looking  on  at  the 
last  act  of  their  office  when  the  priest  receives  and 
examines  the  new  robe  as  we  see  him  doing  in  the 
very  centre  of  all.  The  sculptor  has  placed  this  act 
immediately  over  the  great  entrance  to  the  Parthenon, 
so  that  the  whole  movement  of  the  frieze  converges  upon 
it  from  both  sides.  As  it  appears  to  us  now,  the  incident 
may  be  thought  to  be  wanting  in  centralising  force, 
and  perhaps  it  is  due  to  this  that  innumerable 
differences  of  opinion  have  arisen  in  its  interpretation. 
What  we  see  is  a  graceful  youth  holding  up  a 
carefully  folded  robe  to  a  dignified  priest,  who  takes 
it  from  him  at  the  moment  when  the  head  of  the 
procession,  with  its  victims  for  sacrifice,  has  arrived. 
But  simple,  and  not  very  noticeable,  as  the  incident  is 
in  itself,  it  is  quietly  and  solemnly  marked  off  from 
the  rest  of  the  procession.  On  each  side  of  it  is 
seated  a  line  of  gods  and  goddesses.  It  was  apparently 
a  moment  of  profound  quiet.  All  the  immediate 
surroundings  indicate  silence  and  awe. 

We  have  thus  seen  the  general  nature  of  the 
procession  which  Pheidias  was  directed  to  sculpture 
on  the  Parthenon  frieze,  and  we  may  now  look  at 
some  of  the  difficulties  that  presented  themselves, 
beginning  with  these  same  groups  of  deities.  These 
deities  were  present  only  to  the  mind,  but  here  they 
must  be  present  to  the  sight.  In  a  pictorial  design  it 
would  be  easy,  with  the  aid  of  perspective  and 
distance,  to  obtain  an  equivalent  for  invisibility  to 
the  eye  by  placing  the  gods  away  in  the  background 
(as  in  Fig.  70)  ;  but  it  is  to  be  recollected  that  even 
painting  had  not  in  the  time  of  Pheidias  attained  to 
the  management  of  perspective,  and  that  the  sculptor 
of  a  bas-relief,  limited  to  the  dimensions  of  a  long 

p  2 


Chap.  VI.] 


SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


213 


narrow  frieze,  was  driven  to  the  use  of  a  conventional 
method  of  grouping.  It  was  not  necessary,  however, 
for  Pheidias  to  invent  such  a  method.  Before  his 
time  the  practice  had  been  resorted  to,  where  the 
intervening  presence  of  deities  was  required  by  a 
myth  or  legend,  of  placing  the  god  or  gods  quite 
in  the  middle  of  the  scene ;  if  a  battle,  they  were 
so  placed  that  you  would  fear  lest  the  weapons  of  the 
combatants  should  pierce  them,  as  they  would  have 
done  had  the  gods  not  been  incorporeal.  But  the 
Greeks  knew  well  that  the  gods  were  without 
substance  or  shadow,  and  they  caught  at  once  the 
meaning  when  they  were  so  represented. 

To  the  Greeks  there  was  thus  no  unfamiliarity  in 
the  method  adopted  by  Pheidias.  He  could  not,  in  a 
narrow  strip  of  relief,  place  his  gods  in  the  background, 
seated  in  a  semicircle,  as  he  doubtless  conceived  them. 
He  could  only,  like  his  predecessors,  place  them 
among  the  mortals.  He  chose  for  their  presence  the 
central  and  culminating  part  of  the  ceremony.  That 
we  can  understand  ;  but  he  chose  also  to  divide  them 
into  two  groups.  Mentally,  there  was  every  reason  to 
keep  them  in  one  body ;  there  was  no  division  of 
council  then,  but  on  the  contrary,  a  complete 
unanimity.  He  has  made  his  division  at  the  very 
point  where,  least  of  all,  it  could  in  reality  have  been 
possible ;  he  has  separated  Athene  from  her  father 
Zeus,  and  has  broken  up  the  classic  triad  of  Zeus, 
with  Hera  on  one  hand,  and  Athene  on  the  other. 
It  must  have  been  easy  for  the  imagination  of  a  Greek 
to  see  that  no  real  separation  was  intended ;  he  knew 
that  neither  distance  nor  substance  concerned  the 
gods.  For  moderns,  however,  this  separation  of  the 
deities,  and  the  interjection  between  them  of  the 


214     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


peplos  group  have  been  a  continual  source  of  difficulty. 
Had  the  deities  formed  one  compact  body,  and  had 
the  peplos  group  not  existed  at  all,  we  should  probably 
never  have  heard  a  word  of  surprise ;  the  whole 
arrangement  would  have  seemed  so  natural  to  modern 
notions.  But  clearly  in  our  contentment  we  would 
have  fallen  short  of  that  intelligence  which  Pheidias 
counted  on  among  the  Athenians. 

By  far  the  greater  number  of  figures  stand  or  move 
in  profile,  and  thus  present  that  aspect  in  which  Zeus 
first  fashioned  mankind,  according  to  the  notion  of 
Plato  ('  Sympos.'  xv.),  who  compares  the  first  figure  of 
man  with  a  relief  in  profile.  Where  a  figure  in  the 
Parthenon  frieze  is  turned  more  or  less  to  the  front, 
some  special  service  is  attached  to  it  in  the  procession. 
But  whether  or  not  the  mere  fact  of  standing  and 
moving  in  an  upright  attitude  is  one  of  the  chief 
indications  of  man's  superiority  in  the  animate  crea- 
tion, we  must  admit  it  to  be  an  attitude  which  lends 
itself  admirably  to  bas-relief,  especially  so  when  it  is 
taken  in  profile.  In  no  other  position  does  the  figure 
present  more  of  those  sweeping  elliptical  lines  which 
are  vital  to  sculpture  of  every  kind,  but  most  of  all  to 
relief,  and  less  of  the  circular  and  convex  which  are  to 
be  avoided.  Whatever  is  circular  and  convex  suggests 
instability,  uncertainty.  Whatever  is  elliptical  and 
at  the  same  time  kept  in  low  flat  relief,  suggests 
stability,  simplicity,  and  dignity.  These  qualities  lend 
a  glory  to  the  Parthenon  frieze  because  of  its  fine 
elliptical  lines,  or  lines  which,  if  prolonged,  would 
form  ellipses. 

Whether  the  figures  are  on  horseback  or  on  foot, 
their  heads  always  reach  the  top  of  the  frieze,  and 
yet  there  is  no  visible  distinction  of  scale  among; 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTUEE  IN  RELIEF.  215 

them,  unless  in  the  case  of  the  seated  deities  in  the 
east  frieze,  who  thus  acquire  a  size  appropriately 
greater  than  that  of  man.  In  a  long  narrow  frieze, 
where  a  sense  of  continuity  was  of  the  utmost  value, 
it  was  a  manifest  advantage  to  adopt  the  principle  of 
keeping  the  heads  of  the  figures  all  in  one  line,  the 
principle  of  isocephalismus.  At  the  same  time  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  dangerous  this  principle  may  become 
if  we  glance  at  any  series  of  Roman  triumphal  reliefs. 
There  the  monotony  is  simply  appalling  in  this  respect  . 

Let  us  now  take  as  an  example  of  high  relief  one  of 
the  metopes  of  the  Parthenon  where  a  Lapith  is 
suffering  severe  pain  from 
the  grasp  which  a  Centaur 
has  made  at  his  throat  (Fig. 
71).  We  have  heard  of  the 
savage  character  of  the  Cen- 
taurs, and  have  been  told 
that  the  Lapiths  were  of  a 
race,  endowed  with  simple 
natures  whose  primitive  func- 
tion it  was  to  subdue  the 
more  brutal  elements  of  the  world,  represented  by  the 
Centaurs.  It  was  essential,  therefore,  for  the  sculptor, 
to  give  the  Lapiths  simple  and  in  a  measure  noble 
forms,  though  in  that  respect  he  has  not  succeeded  in 
this  particular  metope  to  anything  like  the  degree  of 
his  success  in  some  of  the  others.  But  why,  it  may  be 
asked,  are  the  Lapiths  always  young  in  these  metopes 
of  the  Parthenon  and  in  Greek  sculpture  generally  of 
the  good  time,  while  the  Centaurs  equally  are  always 
long-bearded  and  old.  Apparently  the  intention  was 
to  bring  out  the  contrast  of  a  new  or  young  race 
subduing  and  supplanting  an  older  race.    To  the 


Fig.  71.    Metope  of  Par- 
thenon. 


216     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 

ordinary  fancy  it  must  have  seemed,  at  times,  that 
some  of  the  Lapiths  ought  to  be  old  and  some  of  the 
Centaurs  young,  as  indeed  they  appear  in  later  art. 
But  had  the  sculptor  of  the  Parthenon  allowed  himself 
this  licence  of  fancy,  the  result  would  have  been  merely 
a  record  of  what  had  been  done  by  the  Centaurs  and 
Lapiths,  or  of  what  was  believed  to  have  been  done  by 
them,  and  less  a  record  of  how  it  was  done.  Herein 
lies  the  function  of  the  artist,  as  Aristotle  observed,  to 
tell  how  things  are  done,  not  what  things  are  done. 
In  this  metope,  then,  we  have  a  young  Lapith  express- 
ing, as  far  as  we  care  to  see  it  expressed,  the  pain  which 

he  suffers;  we  see  also  on  the 
face  of  the  Centaur  an  acute 
sense  of  pain.  Before  passing 
away  from  this  metope  I  would 
call  your  attention  to  the 
multitude  of  fine  details  of 
observation  and  thought  which 
the  sculptor  has  lavished  on 
Fig.  72.  Metope  of       it  and  yet  at  the  height  at 

Parthenon.  -,  .  i     .-,  n  1 

which  the  metope  was  placed 
many  of  these  details  must  have  been  lost,  if  it  is 
possible  for  good  work  in  detail  ever  to  be  lost  so 
long  as  the  composition  as  a  whole  is  within  view. 

In  the  metopes  of  the  Parthenon  there  are  two 
distinct  manners  of  treating  relief,  the  difference  con- 
sisting in  the  amount  of  light  and  shadow.  The 
metope  just  described  is  a  representation  of  one  manner, 
where  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  light  and  shadow 
is  attained.  In  those  metopes  where  the  other  manner 
is  displayed,  we  see  that  the  figures  of  the  Lapith  and 
Centaur  are  massed  together,  so  as  to  present  as  large 
and  as  broad  a  surface  as  possible  to  the  light  (Fig  72). 


Ohap.  VI.] 


SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


217 


The  shadow  plays  principally  round  the  outer  contours 
of  the  group.  But  this  is  not  the  case  to  the  same 
degree  with  the  other  metope.  There  each  limb  has 
its  true  projection,  its  own  light  and  shadow,  and  in 
this  respect  we  must  allow  that  the  sculptor  has  been 
guided  by  a  just  consideration  of  the  position  of  the 
metopes  exposed  as  they  were  to  the  full  light  of  day. 
Still  there  is  an  attraction  in  the  other  method,  with 
its  large  massing  of  surface.  It  admits  of  softening 
and  toning  down  the  action,  if  it  does  nothing  more. 
It  exposes  to  the  light  a  large  surface  capable  of  being 
modelled  so  as  to  give  a  sunny  effect  of  light.  It  is 
high  relief  in  a  true  sense,  whereas  the  opposed 
principle  resembles  more  nearly  sculpture  in  the 
round. 

We  will  take  next  the  frieze  of  Phigaleia  (British 
Museum).  It  has  been  generally  thought  on  fairly 
reasonable  grounds  that  this  frieze  was  the  work  of 
Ictinos,  one  of  the  architects  of  the  Parthenon,  and  the 
custom  was  to  pass  over  its  roughness  as  merely  the 
consequence  of  his  not  being  exclusively  a  sculptor. 
With  the  sculptures  of  Olympia  before  us,  that  is  no 
longer  possible.  For  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  in  the 
frieze  of  Phigaleia  we  have  just  the  same  large,  noble 
forms  as  at  Olympia.  There  is,  of  course,  far  more  work- 
manship in  the  frieze,  and  though  it  is  nearly  confined 
to  the  draperies,  we  are  thankful  so  far,  because,  hard  as 
the  draperies  are,  they  yet  abound  in  really  effective 
and  careful  work.  The  types  of  face  and  form  are 
large,  simple,  and  without  any  refinements  of  detail. 
There  is  no  expression  in  the  faces  except  the  reserved, 
almost  stolid,  expression  of  a  fine  natural  type  of  being. 
In  regard  to  its  effect  as  a  whole,  the  Phigaleian  frieze 
has  this  disadvantage,  that  in  a  number  of  the  slabs 


218     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 

the  joints  had  been  anciently  cut  down  to  such  an 
extent  that  there  is  now  none  of  the  space  between 
them  which  originally  formed  part  of  the  design. 
Clearly  the  frieze  had  been  made  too  long  for  the 
space  which  it  was  to  occupy,  a  fact  which  does  not 
speak  well  for  Ictinos  in  his  combined  profession  of 
architect  and  sculptor. 

The  subject  of  one  half  of  the  frieze  is  a  battle 
between  Greeks  and  Amazons ;  the  subject  of  the 
other  half  is  the  attack  made  by  the  Centaurs  on  the 
Lapiths  (Fig.  73).  The  composition  is  in  parts  too 
crowded  for  relief  where  the  figures  have  so  much  pro- 
jection. On  the  other  hand,  we  have  to  remember  that 
this  frieze  was  placed  within  the  temple,  and  in  such 
a  position  as  to  be  well  exposed  to  the  light  from  the 
open  roof,  in  which  case  the  composition  would  be 
much  clearer  than  it  seems  to  us  now.  The  artist  had 
a  horror  of  vacant  background,  and  at  times  he  will 
fill  up  a  space  with  an  end  of  drapery,  the  movement 
of  which  is  contrary  to  the  movement  of  the  figure 
who  wears  it.  Such  feats  add  to  the  obscurity  of  his 
design.  Then,  again,  it  will  be  noticed  that  he  seems 
to  avoid  as  far  as  possible  placing  any  of  his  nude 
figures  clear  and  decisive  against  the  background. 
He  prefers  to  break  the  outlines  of  such  figures  by 
pieces  of  drapery  here  and  there  between  them  and  the 
field  of  the  slab,  no  matter  whether  the  direction  he 
thus  gives  to  the  drapery  is  quite  opposed  to  the 
action  of  the  figures.  One  would  say  that  he  must 
have  had  some  of  the  instincts  of  a  colourist  to  have 
been  thus  so  careful  in  withdrawing  his  outlines  from 
attention.  Such,  at  all  events,  was  the  tendency  of 
his  practice.  We  may  say  also  that,  though  as  a  rule 
the  attitudes  of  his  figures  are  such  as  to  present  a 


220     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


minimum  of  that  crossing  of  the  arms  over  the  body, 
and  the  consequent  casting  of  confusing  shadows, 
which  is  above  all  to  be  avoided  in  relief,  yet  the 
instances  in  which  he  sins  against  this  principle  are 
numerous  enough  to  suggest  that  he  was  not  fully 


Fig.  74.    Slab  from  balustrade  round  the  temple  of  Wingless 
Victory,  Athens. 


acquainted  with  it,  but  followed  it  rather  as  a  matter 
of  tradition. 

In  the  frieze  of  the  temple  of  Wingless  Victory  at 
Athens,  several  of  the  most  striking  groups  are 
identical  in  composition  with  groups  in  the  Phigaleian 


Chap.  VL] 


SCULPTURE  IN  BELIEF. 


221 


frieze.  But  in  the  Athenian  examples  there  is  a 
singular  refinement  which  is  lacking  at  Phigaleia. 
It  is  instructive  to  compare  these  groups  in  detail. 
The  reliefs  of  the  balustrade  round  the  temple  of 
Victory  represent  the  goddess  of  Victory  in  attitudes 
and  actions  appropriate  to  a  great  ceremony  of  sacrifice. 
Fig.  74  is  the  best  of  them.  The  gracefulness  of  the 
action  and  the  expression  of  sentiment  which  is  con- 
veyed by  the  contrast  of  the  bodily  forms  and  the 
draperies  tell  of  a  later  and  more  advanced  period  than 
that  of  the  frieze  of  the  temple. 

Our  next  landmark  in  the  history  of  sculpture  in 
relief  is  (Fig*  75)  the  frieze  of  the  Mausoleum  at 
Halicarnassos,  (British  Museum).  The  subject  is  con- 
tinuous, and  represents  a  battle  of  Greeks  and 
Amazons.  That  had  been  a  familiar  subject  in 
Greek  art  for  some  time,  and  we  are  prepared  to 
find  on  the  Mausoleum  motives  which  had  been 
in  use  before.  But  while  this  is  the  case,  what 
really  strikes  us  most  is  the  invention  of  new 
motives  in  this  frieze.  Some  of  them  occur  again 
nowhere  else  in  ancient  art,  so  far  as  I  am  aware. 
Take  as  examples  the  Amazon  who  has  thrown  her- 
self round  on  the  back  of  her  horse;  or  take  her 
comrade,  who,  with  her  back  turned  to  the  spectator, 
stands  in  a  vigorous  attitude  of  combat ;  or  the 
Amazon  who  bends  down  at  the  further  side  of  her 
horse's  neck  to  reach  an  enemy.  These  and  other 
motives  that  could  be  cited  do  not  belong  to  the  class 
of  variations  on  well-known  themes  which  a  cultivated 
artist  is  expected  to  produce.  They  are  freshly  created 
out  of  the  circumstances,  and  belong  to  the  province 
of  genius.  It  should  be  observed  that  these  motives 
occur  on  slabs  which  were  found   by  Sir  Charles 


222     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


Newton  on  the  east  side  of  the  Mausoleum,  and  that 
it  was  the  east  side  which  was  assigned  to  Scopas,  ac- 
cording to  the  statement  preserved  by  Pliny.  What 
then  shall  wre  say  of  it  in  comparison  with  the  frieze 
of  the  Parthenon  ?  From  a  technical  point  of  view 
the  relief  has  become  higher  and  rounder,  so  that  the 
limbs  are  presented  with  nearly  the  full  rotundity  of 
nature,  while  the  body  still  appears  mostly  in  front 
view  and  with  only  a  part  of  its  natural  thickness. 
One  is  inclined  to  ask  why  a  sculptor  of  so  much  skill 
allowed  himself  to  thus  mix  up  two  separate  principles 
— approaching  to  realism  in  the  limbs  of  his  figure 
and  adhering  to  a  conventional  treatment  in  the  body. 
We  are  apt  to  think  that  an  artist  has  certain  obliga- 
tions to  Nature,  and  that  if  he  follows  her  in  one  part, 
he  must  follow  her  throughout.  We  have  been  so 
long  accustomed  to  see  artists  studying  from  Nature 
that  we  have  got  to  look  on  them  as  in  some  way  her 
servants,  as  if  they  only  existed  to  attend  to  her, 
while  in  fact  their  business  is  with  slabs  or  blocks  of 
marble,  with  pieces  of  clay,  with  colours  and  brushes. 
They  must  acquire  the  knowledge  which  has  been 
gradually  accumulated  by  their  profession,  before  they 
go  to  Nature,  if  ever  they  go. 

In  the  Mausoleum  frieze,  then,  we  have  a  fertility 
in  the  invention  of  incident  and  in  bringing  before  us 
unexpected  attitudes  and  groupings,  we  have  a 
rhythmical  movement  in  the  composition,  and  a 
slight  advance  towards  realism.  The  background  of 
the  relief  shelves  away  from  near  the  upper  edge  to 
just  the  extent  which  is  required  to  enable  the 
sculptor  to  bring  the  head  of  a  figure  moving  in 
profile  forward  into  nearly  the  same  plane  with  his 
shoulder.    He  can  thus  give  the  full  extent  of  round- 


224     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VL 


ness  to  both  the  head  and  the  shoulders,  and  he  avoids 
the  difficulty  which  in  older  sculpture  was  met  either 
by  greatly  reducing  the  projection  of  the  shoulder 
and  arm  facing  the  spectator,  as  we  see  in  the  Phi- 
galeian  frieze,  where  the  habit  is  of  frequent  occurrence, 
or  placing  a  figure  with  the  body  full  to  the  front  and 
the  head  turned  in  three-quarter  face.  In  other 
instances  of  that  frieze,  where  the  head  of  a  figure  is 
brought  forward  to  be  in  the  same  plane  with  the 
body,  the  back  of  it  is  not  finished,  in  which  case  the 
head  would  stand  out  quite  free,  but  is  left  attached 
to  the  field  of  relief  in  a  somewhat  ungainly  manner. 

But  now  as  to  the  difference  of  sentiment  in  the 
conception  and  composition  which  we  find  in  the 
frieze  of  the  Mausoleum  as  compared  with  the  Par- 
thenon. It  is  the  practice  in  such  cases  to  consider 
contemporary  literature,  in  particular  poetry,  to  see 
whether  it  does  not  reflect  changes  in  national  tastes 
and  aspirations  calculated  to  prepare  us  for  changes 
in  artistic  sentiment.  We  have  no  choice  but  to  take 
Euripides.  He  also  drew  the  characters  of  his  dramas 
from  the  old  world  of  myth  and  legend ;  but  he  in- 
sisted on  their  appearing  on  the  stage  as  persons 
endowed  with  just  the  same  gifts  of  mind  and  manners 
as  were  common  among  the  spectators  themselves. 
The  stately  language  in  which  ordinary  incidents,  or 
matters  of  fact,  were  announced  in  the  old  drama  was 
to  him  stilted  and  oppressive ;  he  preferred  to  ap- 
proach as  nearly  as  possible  the  level  of  conversation 
in  such  cases.  It  was  not  enough  to  present  his 
characters  in  simple  and  powerful  outline  as  iEschylus 
had  done ;  every  emotion  of  the  heart  must  be  brought 
out  and  played  upon.  Yet  he  knew  well  that  some- 
thing more  was  needed  to  sustain  an  audience :  he 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF.  225 


saw  that  curiosity  must  be  kept  awake.  And  here 
his  fertility  in  the  invention  of  intrigue,  and  in 
bringing  about  the  unexpected,  rendered  him  good 
service.  We  have  in  him  these  three  elements  :  first, 
a  splendid  fertility  in  the  invention  of  incidents  and 
in  bringing  about  the  unexpected  in  comparatively 
small  matters ;  secondly,  a  profusion  and  exuberance 
of  the  lyric  faculty ;  and,  thirdly,  a  greater  power  in 
the  presentation  of  individual  figures  than  in  making 
them  work  together  for  one  constructive  end. 

Returning  to  the  Mausoleum  frieze,  it  will  be  ad- 
mitted that  the  invention  of  motives  to  which  we  have 
referred  is  not  without  analogy  to  the  fertility  of 
Euripides  in  the  invention  of  incident. 

Hitherto  we  have  discussed  bas-relief  only  as  it  is 
found  in  long  narrow  friezes  employed  for  the  decora- 
tion of  public  buildings.  But  it  had  other  uses,  some 
of  them  not  without  interest.  There  is,  for  example, 
the  class  of  sculptured  monuments  to  the  dead,  which 
abound  in  Athens,  and  of  which  there  are  familiar 
examples  in  most  museums.  Lest  anyone  should 
think  it  to  have  been  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  great 
artist  to  have  sculptured  a  monument  of  this  kind, 
it  may  be  stated  that  there  was  one  to  be  seen  at 
Athens  from  the  hand  of  Praxiteles.  It  represented 
a  soldier  standing  beside  his  horse.  That  is  all  we 
know  of  it. 

We  are  told,  that  under  the  administration  of 
Pericles  a  whole  army  of  artists  and  artistic  workmen 
were  employed  on  public  buildings  under  the  direction 
of  Pheidias,  and  if  we  ask  what  came  of  them  when 
these  buildings  were  finished,  we  shall  have  to  con- 
clude that  many  at  least  of  them  had  continued  to  be 
occupied  in  the  production  of  bas-reliefs  for  tomb- 

Q 


226     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


stones,  with  occasional  employment  on  such  public 
work  as  the  frieze  of  Erechtheum. 

We  have  the  famous  speech  of  Pericles  (Thucyd. 
ii.  35),  when  in  a  common  grave  at  Athens  and  with 
much  ceremony  those  were  buried  who  had  fallen  in 
war.  Not  once  does  he  single  out  any  particular  act 
of  bravery.  He  draws  no  scene  of  the  battle-field. 
He  concentrates  every  effort  on  a  picture  of  the 
general  life  of  the  state  which  had  made  those  men 
wrho  had  fallen  the  brave  men  they  were,  and  which 
they  in  their  turn  had  helped  forward.  In  most  of 
the  Greek  tombstones  we  have  this  same  appeal  to 
the  imagination  and  the  affections ;  rarely,  if  ever,  an 
appeal  to  any  particular  fact  or  recollection,  however 
much  any  such  fact  or  recollection  might  touch  the 
affections  alone  (compare  Fig.  95).  As  a  rule,  there  is 
no  approach  to  strong  emotion  in  these  reliefs.  But 
there  is  one  class  of  them  in  which  we  find  something 
of  that  nature.  A  relief  such  as  we  speak  of  repre- 
sents a  youth  standing  easily  before  an  old  man  who 
regards  him  attentively.  So  far  there  is  only,  so  to 
speak,  an  air  of  sadness  in  the  group.  But  behind  the 
youth  there  sits  crouching  on  the  ground  the  slave 
boy  who  used  to  attend  him  to  the  bath  and  palaestra, 
thinking  it  all  the  world  to  be  with  his  young  master. 
Now  the  poor  boy  is  desolate,  and  literally  doubled  up 
with  grief.  He  is  made  even  smaller  than  nature,  so  as 
to  render  him,  as  I  suppose,  more  pitiable,  yet  all  the 
while  the  two  principal  figures  take  no  notice  of  him. 
Thus,  it  was  not  absolutely  prohibited  to  Greek 
sculptors  of  the  good  time  to  express  strong  emotion 
in  a  lower  class  of  being,  if  only  the  being  in  question 
was  kept  in  his  proper  place ;  and  in  connection  with 
this  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  in  the  daily  life  of 


Chap.  VI.] 


the  Greeks  it  was  the  custom,  in  cases  of  bereavement, 
to  hire  women  to  wail  and  beat  their  breasts  and  tear 
their  hair.  Yet  behind  all  this  who  can  suppose  but 
that  the  bereaved  persons  also  beat  their  breasts  in 
secret  ? 

Then  again  we  have  the  class  of  bronze  reliefs 


Fig.  76.    Victory  slaying  an  ox.    Belief  in  bronze  on  a 
mirror-case.    From  Corinth.    British  Museum. 
Ht.  4|  in. 

which  served  for  the  decoration  of  articles  of  luxury,  if 
not  also  of  utility.  These,  it  is  clear,  represent  a  very 
extensive  activity  among  the  Greek  artists,  particularly 
during  the  4th  cent.  B.C.  Fig.  76,  representing  Victory 
slaying  an  ox,  is  an  excellent  example.  We  can  see 
from  the  frequency  with  which  this  particular  conception 
was  reproduced  in  later  art  on  terra-cotta  panels  and 

Q  2 


228     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


engraved  gems  how  much,  it  had  attracted  Greek  taste. 
Fig.  77  reproduces  the  relief  on  the  outside  of  a  bronze 
mirror-case  in  the  British  Museum,  which,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  has  also  a  fine  piece  of  drawing  incised 
on  the  inside  (Fig.  54).  The  meaning  of  the  group  is 
clear  in  a  general  way.  It  is  a  love  scene  of  some 
kind,  or  we  should  not  have  a  winged  Eros  present. 
To  wear  a  shawl  in  the  fashion  of  the  central  figure 
was  with  the  Greeks  a  sign  of  married  life ;  or  at 
least,  when  a  Greek  wished  expressly  to  indicate  a 
married  woman,  he  gave  her  this  veil  over  the  back 
of  her  head.  The  central  figure,  therefore,  is  the  wife 
of  some  one.  The  female  figure  who  stands  away  to 
the  right  is  clearly  horrified,  from  her  movement  and 
the  action  of  her  hands.  But  what  is  there  to  horrify 
her  in  a  wife  taking  down  her  veil  ?  Yes,  but  Eros  is 
present  to  help  her.  More  than  that,  with  both  hands 
she  pushes  away  the  sides  of  the  shawl.  It  is  this 
combination  of  actions  that  frightens  her  companion. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  bronze  may  repre- 
sent Danae  in  the  brazen  chamber,  receiving  the 
shower  of  gold.  On  the  painted  vases  we  see  Danae 
holding  up  her  robe  in  this  fashion  ;  but  there  was  no 
occasion,  we  suppose,  for  the  horror  of  her  attendant, 
if  she  had  one.  Another  possible  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Hippolytos  of  Euripides.  In  that  drama 
Phaedra,  who  has  become  the  wife  of  Theseus  in 
Athens,  is  cursed  with  a  love  for  her  stepson,  Hip- 
polytos. She  falls  into  melancholy.  No  one  can 
understand  what  is  the  matter.  She  throws  physic  to 
the  dogs.  At  last  her  nurse  suspects  the  secret,  and 
openly  charges  her  with  it.  Then  comes  the  dreadful 
confession,  at  which  the  nurse  is  aghast.  The  subject 
has  been  often  rendered  in  ancient  art,  and  in  most 


Chap.  VI.] 


SCULPTUKE  IN  BELIEF. 


229 


cases  the  nurse  is  a  prominent  figure  as  an  old  woman. 
On  our  bronze  the  horrified  figure  is  clearly  a  young 
woman.  It  is  there  that  the  difficulty  of  explanation 
comes  in.    If  this  figure  is  not  the  nurse,  we  ought 


Fig.  77.    Bronze  relief  on  mirror-case.    From  Corinth.    Brit.  Mus. 
Dia.  7J  in. 

to  look  for  some  other  explanation  But  we  are  en- 
titled to  throw  over  the  nurse  if  we  like,  because 
Phsedra  reveals  her  passion  not  only  to  the  nurse,  but 
also  to  her  women  attendants.  Quite  possibly  one  of 
these  attendants  is  represented  on  our  bronze  by  the 


230    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


horrified  figure.  On  a  marble  urn  in  the  British 
Museum  with  this  same  subject,  a  youthful  attendant 
is  present  as  well  as  the  aged  nurse. 

As  regards  the  composition  of  the  group,  it  has 
escaped  from  the  formality,  balance,  and  responsion  of 
one  figure  to  another  which  characterised  archaic  art ; 
still  more  is  it  free  from  the  archaic  bending,  stooping, 
and  contorting  of  figures  to  adapt  them  to  a  circular 
surface.  But  while  it  is  easy  to  point  out  the  faults 
of  older  times  from  which  our  bronze  is  free,  it  is 
difficult  to  describe  its  beauties  except  by  appealing 
to  the  largeness  of  style  in  the  forms,  the  exquisite 
rendering  of  the  draperies,  the  fine  touches  of  observa- 
tion, as  in  the  slipped-down  sleeve  of  the  central 
figure,  the  conception  of  the  figure  of  Eros  as  that 
of  an  accessory  in  the  design,  a  passion  which  at 
the  final  moment  takes  form  and  comes  on  wings 
unseen. 

When  considering  the  archaic  bronze  of  Athene 
(Fig.  61),  we  saw  that  the  figure  consisted  of  two 
reliefs  placed  back  to  back,  each  representing  one  side 
of  the  goddess.  Here,  in  Fig.  78,  we  have  again  two 
reliefs  which,  were  they  placed  back  to  back,  would 
make  one  figure  of  Athene.  Instead  of  that,  we  have 
apparently  two  Athenes  confronting  each  other.  The 
idea  seems  absurd  :  nor  can  such  strict  balancing  of 
one  figure  against  another  be  regarded  as  attractive  in 
art.  Surely  there  must  have  been  in  the  mind  of  the 
artist  a  belief  that  the  spectator  would  at  once  see 
that  the  one  figure  is  but  a  reflection  of  the  other,  not 
perhaps  inappropriate  on  a  mirror-case. 

Passing  over  a  number  of  bronzes  of  this  class  in  the 
British  Museum  which  well  deserve  some  attention, 
we  will  notice  only  the  bronzes  of  Siris.    That  is  the 


Chap.  VI.] 


SCULPTUKE  IN  EELIEF. 


231 


name  which  for  many  years  has  attached  to  two 
bronze  reliefs  said  to  have  been  found  near  the  river 
Siris  in  Southern  Italy  in  1820.1  It  was  in  this 
locality  that  the  memorable  battle  occurred  in  which 


Fig.  78.    Bronze  relief  on  mirror-case.    Brit.  Mus. 
Dia.  7}  in. 


Pyrrhus  was  signally  defeated.  The  wish  to  connect 
everything  beautiful  or  remarkable  with  some  famous 

1  Michaelis,  in  Liitzow's  'Zeitschrift  fur  bildende  Kunst,'  xiv. 
1879,  p.  27,  calls  this  provenance  an  invention  of  the  Neapolitan 
dealer  who  sold  the  bronzes  to  Bronsted. 


232     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


person,  produced  the  suggestion  that  these  bronzes 
may  have  belonged  to  the  armour  worn  by  Pyrrhus  on 
that  day.  The  suggestion  was  enticing,  and  not  much 
worse  if  so  bad  as  many  others.  If  Alexander  the 
Great  had  been  suggested,  that  would  have  been 
nearer  the  mark  as  to  time. 

These  bronzes,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  engraving 
of  one  of  them  (Fig.  79),  had  been  attached  by  hinges 
on  the  upper  edge,  possibly  to  a  cuirass.  In  both 
groups  we  have  the  same  subject,  a  Greek  overpower- 
ing an  Amazon  in  battle,  the  figures  in  the  one  group 
being  reversed  from  the  other,  so  as  to  form  companion 
groups,  such  as  would  be  needed  on  the  shoulders  of  a 
cuirass.  One  thing  to  be  noticed  is  what  appears  to 
be  a  very  fine  balance  of  draped  and  nude  forms,  es- 
pecially in  the  left  hand  group.  In  the  other  (Fig.  79), 
there  is  rather  an  excess  of  nude  form.  In  both  groups 
the  Greek  warrior  is  nude,  but  that  does  not  prevent 
the  artist  from  making  use  of  drapery  as  a  foil  to  the 
nude  forms.  The  Greeks  have  each  their  chlamys, 
which  in  the  combat  has  flown  loose  except  for  an 
end  of  it,  which  is  twisted  round  the  left  arm.  The 
rest  of  the  chlamys  floats  behind  the  figure,  and  is 
very  skilfully  used  to  introduce  contrasts  of  fine  folds 
here  and  there  as  a  background  hard  against  the  nude 
forms,  which  otherwise  would  be  too  statuesque  perhaps. 
We  do  not  profess  to  be  able  to  analyse  the  charm  of 
the  subtle  thoughts  of  the  artist.  It  is  enough  to 
enjoy  them.  But  it  is  easy  to  compare  the  two  groups 
in  this  respect,  and  to  see  how  the  greater  display  of 
drapery  as  a  background  in  the  left  hand  group,  as 
compared  with  the  other,  affects  the  composition ;  we 
must  not  say  favourably  or  the  reverse,  because  both 
have  their  charms.    All  we  can  say  is,  that  the  one 


Fig.  79.    One  of  the  bronzes  of  Siris.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  6|  in. 


234     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


is  more  suggestive  of  a  painter's  method,  the  other 
of  a  sculptor's. 

From  a  technical  point  of  view  these  bronzes  are  no 
less  than  marvellous  as  examples  of  repousse  work. 
The  quality  of  the  bronze  must  have  been  originally 
fine  beyond  all  praise  or  comparison,  to  admit  of  being 
hammered  up  to  the  extraordinary  extent  which  it 
reaches  in  the  chests  and  faces  of  the  Greeks.  In  some 
points  it  has  failed,  and  separate  pieces  have  been 
made  and  attached  in  their  place.  Then  again  the 
minuteness  with  which  the  whole  surface  has  afterwards 
been  gone  over  is  endless,  incising  elaborate  patterns 
on  the  shields,  working  up  the  beards  into  almost 
microscopic  faithfulness,  and  yet,  with  perfect  freedom 
of  touch,  following  the  minutest  folds  of  the  drapery, 
from  their  origin  to  their  final  disappearance  into 
some  other  larger  fold  or  into  airy  nothingness. 
These  are  facts  which  suit  no  Greek  sculptor  of  whose 
practice  we  know  from  ancient  writers  better  than 
Lysippos.  He  was  famed  for  a  combination  of  minute 
finish  and  a  vigorous  system  of  proportions.  He  was 
the  most  prominent  sculptor  at  the  time  at  which  from 
other  considerations  we  should  place  these  bronzes, 
and  without  claiming  him  as  the  sculptor  of  them,  we 
may  yet  fairly  regard  them  as  influenced  by  his 
manner,  as  in  fact  among  the  best  illustrations  we 
possess  of  his  special  method  of  working.  He  was  a 
sculptor  in  bronze  above  all  things. 

The  development  of  Greek  bas-relief  after  the  death 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  while  maintaining  the  tradi- 
tional ideal  manner,  as  in  reliefs  of  the  kind  illustrated 
by  Fig.  80,  showed  also  a  tendency  towards  realism, 
retaining  such  of  the  old  ideals  as  had  become 
stereotyped,  so  to  speak,  about  the  beginning  of  the 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  RELIEF. 


235 


4th  cent.  B.C.  Ideal  Satyrs,  Bacchantes,  Centaurs 
and  Cupids  continued  to  be  employed,  but  they  were 


Fig.  80.    Relief  in  marble.    From  the  great  theatre,  Athens. 

put  to  new  uses.  We  see  them  engaged  in  scenes  of 
daily  life,  such  as  Satyrs  filling  a  basket  of  grapes  or 


236     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHtEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


standing  on  tiptoe  to  drink  from  the  lip  of  a  large 
vase  (Fig.  81).  The  tendency  to  represent  natural 
scenes  was  not  strong  enough  to  drive  the  sculptors  to 
cast  aside  altogether  the  traditional  ideal  forms.  Yet 
they  ought  to  have  known  that  these  forms  of  Satyrs, 
Bacchantes,  and  Cupids  had  originally  been  created  as 
ideals  founded  on  natural  observation.  They  ought 
to  have  seen  that  what  they  were  now  doing  was 


Fig.  81.    Terra-cotta  panel.    Brit.  Mus. 

attempting  to  separate  the  two  original  elements  out 
of  which  these  figures  had  been  composed — ideal 
conception  and  actual  observation  of  nature.  The 
attempt  was  absurd,  because  if  our  imagination  can 
recognise  in  the  ideal  form  and  movement  of  a  Satyr 
the  whole  story  of  the  vine,  the  vintage,  the  mirth  of 
the  winepress,  and  the  generous  effects  of  wine  on 
mankind,  it  is  doing  a  thing  twice  over  for  an  artist  to 
exhibit  Satyrs  engaged  in  these  occupations.    If  he 


Chap.  VI.]  SCULPTURE  IN  EELIEF.  237 


cares  to  represent  such  scenes,  he  should  take  human 
beings  as  the  actors  in  them. 

To  illustrate  this  stage  we  have  abundance  of 
material  in  the  engraved  gems,  in  some  of  the  frescoes 
of  Pompeii,  and  in  a  considerable  series  of  terra-cotta 
panels  with  reliefs  which  had  been  employed  as  mural 
decorations  for  Eoman  palaces  from  the  3rd  to  the  1st 
cent.  B.C.,  and  had  thus  helped  to  constitute  that 
Kome  of  clay  which  the  Emperor  Augustus  transformed 
into  a  Eome  of  marble.  Among  these  panels  will  often 
be  observed  figures  and  compositions  treated  in  imita- 
tion of  the  archaic  Greek  manner  as  regards  form,  but 
missing  its  true  spirit ;  and  these  instances  of  archaism 
occurring  side  by  side  with  the  reproduction  of  the 
styles  and  types  of  the  most  fully-developed  kind, 
show  that  this  age  was  not  a  simple  growth  out  of  the 
preceding  age.  All  the  past  ages  were  its  prey,  so  far 
as  they  furnished  designs  suitable  for  the  decorative 
purposes  it  had  most  at  heart.  The  patronage  of  art 
had  passed  into  the  hands  of  wealthy  men,  whose  wish 
was  to  be  surrounded  in  their  life  time  with  richly- 
sculptured  vases  of  silver  or  marble ;  and  at  their  death 
to  be  consigned  to  magnificent  sarcophagi,  of  which 
few  can  have  surpassed  or  even  rivalled  in  sculptured 
beauty  those  now  in  the  museum  at  Constantinople. 

A  further  characteristic  of  the  Hellenistic  age 
which  we  are  now  considering  was  the  universal  pride 
that  was  taken  in  great  festal  processions  through  the 
streets  of  such  towns  as  Alexandria.  One  of  the 
features  of  these  processions  was  to  represent  or  enact 
scenes  from  the  old  myths,  especially  the  myth  of 
Dionysos  with  his  Satyrs  and  Sileni.  In  most  cases 
there  was  an  extravagant  display  of  works  of 
sculpture,  but  the  subjects   generally,  whether  in 


238     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VI. 


bas-relief  or  in  the  round,  rarely  went  beyond  the 
region  of  Satyrs  and  Sileni,  except  to  introduce  such 
vague  personifications  as  those  of  Day  and  Night, 
Earth  and  Sky.  Such,  at  least,  is  what  we  gather 
from  the  ancient  descriptions  of  these  scenes,  in 
particular  from  what  appears  to  have  been  the  best  of 
them — the  festa  prepared  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes  for 
the  Roman  General,  Aemilius  Paulus.  Clearly  the 
governing  and  impelling  force  behind  all  these  efforts 
was  the  desire  to  realise  vividly  some  scene  of  public 
importance.  But  at  every  step  this  desire  was  held 
down  by  tradition;  it  was  chained  to  the  old  Satyrs 
and  Sileni,  the  old  abstract  personifications.  And 
thus  sculpture  in  relief  attracted  to  a  profitable 
business,  gave  up,  so  far,  any  chance  it  may  have  had 
of  developing  some  new  line  of  observation. 


(    239  ) 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

STATUARY. 

'E^l  fiev  tolvvv  €TT(ov  7TOL7j(T€L  "Oprjpov  eycoye  fJLoXuTTa  reSaV/JLClKCl, 
em        biOvpafifioi)  M€\avL7T7Tidr]v,  inl  8i  rpaycodla  2o<£oK\ea7  eVt 
avbpiavToirouq  TLo\vk\€ltov,  iirl  $e  faypcKpia  Zev^iv.  XENOPHOX, 
Memorabilia,  i.  4.  3. 

A  statue  has  certain  advantages  over  sculpture  in 
relief  and  over  painting.  It  can  show  us  a  man  in 
every  one  of  his  dimensions,  in  thickness  as  well  as  in 
height,  and  even  in  solid  weight  if  that  were  desired. 
In  a  painting,  we  cannot  see  both  the  back  and  the 
face  of  a  man.  We  can  only  have  one  view  of  him, 
and  that  the  view  which  the  painter  has  chosen.  A 
painter  or  a  sculptor  in  relief  sets  out  with  a  clear 
admission  of  the  limits  imposed  on  him  in  this  respect, 
and  he  has  the  consolation  that  we  do  not  in  general 
desire  to  see  the  backs  of  his  figures.  So  far  a 
picture  of  a  man,  or  a  bas-relief  of  him,  fascinates  us 
more  readily  than  a  statue;  and  doubtless  it  was  for 
this  among  other  reasons  that  in  antiquity  the 
sculpture  of  statues  was  comparatively  late  in  coming 
into  the  field. 

But  with  its  opportunities  of  attaining  absolute 
faithfulness,  the  art  of  statuary  had  on  this  very 
account  enormous  difficulties  to  overcome.  It  had 
two  opposite  forces  to  reconcile.  A  sense  of  realism 
required  the  statue  to  be  equally  true  to  nature  all 


240    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ABCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


round.  A  sense  of  art  said  plainly  that  there  was  one 
view  of  the  figure — the  front  view — which  surpassed 
all  others  in  beauty.  That  was  the  force  of  idealism. 
In  approaching  the  study  of  Greek  sculpture,  we  have 
to  bear  in  mind  that  this  was  the  great  problem  it 
had  to  solve :  to  reconcile  these  two  opposing  claims 
of  absolute  realism  and  arbitrary  idealism.  It  is  not 
denied  that  in  painting  and  in  sculpture  in  relief 
there  had  been  times  when  this  problem  pressed  upon 
the  artists,  and  largely  modified  their  conceptions, 
But  it  fell  with  full  force  on  statuary  alone. 

During  the  early  ages  of  art,  there  had  been  a  long 
training  in  working  in  relief  which  had  given  a  pre- 
ponderance to  the  ideal  manner,  such  as  it  was.  But 
no  sooner  had  the  time  come  when  the  realities  of 
human  form  began  to  be  fused  with  an  ideal  concep- 
tion of  them,  than  a  new  possibility  forced  itself  on  the 
sculptors.  It  began  to  be  seen  that  there  was  an  inner 
as  well  as  an  outer  life  in  man  which  had  to  be  taken 
into  account.  The  problem  then  took  the  complex 
form  of  reconciling  an  artistic  ideal  with  the  actual 
realities  of  bodily  form  and  natural  passions.  It  would 
not  be  difficult  to  select  a  number  of  examples  from 
Greek  sculpture,  to  illustrate  these  leading  stages  in 
its  development.  But  while  this  will  be  our  main 
purpose  in  the  following  sketch,  we  have  also  to  bear 
in  mind  the  necessity  of  explaining,  as  we  go  on,  the 
changes  in  technical  and  other  matters  on  which  much 
depended  for  the  retarding  or  forwarding  of  new  prin- 
ciples and  new  impulses.  For  a  while,  indeed,  it  will 
be  chiefly  with  changes  of  this  kind  that  we  shall  have 
to  deal. 

We  begin  with  the  bronze  bust  Fig.  82.  Strictly 
speaking,  it   is   not   Greek.    It  was  found  in  an 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


241 


Etruscan  tomb  and  no  doubt  is  of  Etruscan  workman- 
ship prior  to  600  B.C.      But  at  that  time  Etruria 


Fig.  82.    Bronze  bust.    Polledrara  tomb,  Vulci.    Brit.  Mus.1 

and  Greece  had  so   much  in   common  in  matters 
of  art,  or,  at  least  of  artistic  processes,  that  what 
1  Hist.  Gr.  Sculpt.,  2nd  ed.,  i.  p.  85. 

R 


242    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY     [Chap.  VII. 


was  true  of  the  one  country  was  true  also  of  the 
other.  Besides,  the  process  by  which  this  bust  had 
been  produced,  answers  exactly  to  the  literary  records 
we  possess  of  the  oldest  statuary  of  bronze  in  Greece. 
The  bust  is  made  of  thin  plates  of  bronze  hammered  up 
into  some  approach  to  human  form  and  then  fastened 
together  with  pins  or  nails,  so  as  to  form  a  complete 
bust.  There  was  in  Greece  a  statue  made  in  this 
manner  which  Pausanias  saw  and  described,  calling  it 
the  oldest  statue  he  knew  of.  So  also  at  Olympia 
there  was  a  famous  colossal  figure  of  gold  made  by 
this  process  at  the  expense  of  the  ruling  family  of 
Corinth,  the  Kypselidae,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
7th  cent.  B.C. 

Therefore  failing  remains  of  Greek  sculpture 
from  Greece  itself  we  are  justified  in  using  as  an 
illustration  this  contemporary  bust  from  Etruria.  In 
one  respect  it  is  not  a  good  illustration.  We  mean 
the  fact  of  its  being  a  bust.  The  ordinary  belief  is 
that  the  Greeks  did  not  sculpture  busts  till  at  a  late 
period  of  their  art,  till  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Great  and  thereafter.  We  may  take  that  as  next  to 
certain.  The  idea  of  our  Etruscan  bust  appears  to 
have  been  derived  from  a  class  of  vases  which  the 
Phoenicians  were  fond  of,  tall  cylindrical  vases  finishing 
at  the  top  in  the  form  of  a  bust  of  their  goddess 
Astarte  or  Aphrodite.  In  this  same  tomb  with  the 
bust  we  are  now  describing  were  found  two  such  vases 
in  alabaster,  which  clearly  had  been  imported  from 
some  place  where  Phoenician  influence  was  powerful. 
At  all  events  our  bronze  illustrates  the  earliest 
process  of  statuary  among  the  Greeks  when  as  yet 
casting  was  unknown. 

According  to  tradition  bronze  casting  was  invented 


Chap.  VIL]  STATUARY.  243 


or  introduced  in  Greece  towards  the  beginning  of  the 
6th  cent.  B.C.  No  doubt  casting  had  been  practised  long 
before  then  in  Assyria  and  Egypt,  at  least  casting  solid. 
In  the  British  Museum  are  bronze  statuettes  from 
Assyria  cast  solid  and  bearing  inscriptions  which  place 
their  date  at  about  2250  years  B.C.  Possibly  there 
are  examples  from  Egypt  also  of  a  similarly  high 
antiquity.  But  what  we  have  to  do  with  is  hollow 
casting.  With  this  invention  the  names  of  two 
sculptors  were  always  associated,  Theodoros  and 
Rhoecos  of  Samos,  of  whom  it  was  also  said  that  they 
had  studied  their  art  in  Egypt.  We  now  know, 
thanks  to  recent  excavations,  that  where  they  studied 
was  among  the  Greek  settlers  at  Naucratis  in  Egypt. 
The  name  Rhoecos  has  been  found  there  inscribed  on  a 
vase,  and  though  it  is  not  necessarily  the  very  name  of 
the  sculptor,  it  is  nevertheless  to  all  appearance  the 
name  of  some  one  from  the  same  locality  of  Samos  at 
that  time.  Diodorus  Siculus  (i.  98)  describes  a  specimen 
of  casting  by  Theodoros  and  Rhoecos  in  the  form  of  a 
statue  of  Apollo  in  Samos,  and  claims  the  invention  of 
the  method  for  the  old  Egyptians.  He  says  first  that 
the  statue  was  made  in  two  parts,  the  one  part  being  cast 
in  Samos,  the  other  in  Ephesus,  which  is  not  far  away. 
The  two  parts  fitted  together  so  well  that  one  would 
suppose  the  whole  figure  to  have  been  made  by  one 
man.  He  thinks  that  very  curious.  Then  he  goes  on 
to  say  that  the  two  halves  were  taken  vertically  from 
the  top  down  to  the  legs,  that  is  to  say,  each  part 
consisted  of  a  leg  and  half  the  torso.  It  was  a 
rational  way  of  dividing  a  figure  for  the  purposes  of 
casting,  if  one  could  only  understand  the  motive.  The 
only  explanation  we  can  suggest  is  that  the  statue, 
being,  as  it  is  described,  one  of  those  archaic  sym- 

r  2 


214    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


metrical  figures  of  Apollo,  in  which  the  right  half 
reproduces  the  left  in  a  reversed  fashion,  there  was 
some  temptation  to  model  one  half  and  to  reverse  the 
model  for  the  other  half.  But  clearly  the  statue  was 
considered  a  curiosity  of  technical  skill,  and  perhaps 
we  should  not  inquire  too  closely  into  the  description 
of  it.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  two  parts  of  this 
wonderful  statue  had  been  brazed  together  by  a  solder. 
That  was  a  process  which  had  been  invented  some 
time  before  by  an  artist  named  Glaukos  of  Chios. 
The  invention  coming  as  it  did  before  casting  was 
known,  was  hailed  as  an  extraordinary  advance  on  the 
old  cumbersome  method  of  fastening  the  parts  to- 
gether by  pins  or  rivets,  as  in  our  Etruscan  bust,  and 
in  numbers  of  archaic  bronze  vases. 

To  the  time  of  Theodoros  and  Ehoecos  appears  to  have 
belonged  a  great  bronze  vase  which  was  placed  in  the 
temple  of  Hera  in  Samos  (Herodotus,  iv.  152).  Under 
the  vase  was  a  stand  formed  of  three  figures  resting  on 
their  knees,  which  figures  were  each  10^-  feet  high.  The 
wThole  had  been  a  present  from  the  owners  of  a  mer- 
chant-ship which  had  gone  to  the  north  coast  of  Africa 
and  had  been  carried  by  a  favourable  wind  outside  the 
Mediterranean  beyond  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  that  is 
the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  to  Tartessos  in  Spain,  whence 
they  returned  with  a  cargo  which  proved  a  fortune 
to  them ;  probably  a  cargo  of  precious  metals  from 
the  mines  there.  It  is  a  proof  of  the  early  date  at 
which  these  mines  were  worked,  and  a  proof  also 
that  till  then  these  mines  were  little  known  to  the 
Greeks.  In  speaking  of  the  three  figures  which 
formed  the  stand  of  the  vase,  Herodotus  calls  them 
"  colossi."  We  also  should  call  a  statue  10J  feet 
"  colossal."    But  we  have  become  used  to  the  word. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATU  AKY. 


245 


The  difficulty  is  to  find  out  where  Herodotus  got  it. 
He  uses  it  repeatedly  in  speaking  of  the  huge  statues 
which  he  saw  in  Egypt,  and  one  might  suppose  that 
he  had  found  the  word  "  colossus  "  in  use  among  the 
Greeks  in  Egypt  with  whom  he  visited,  possibly  the 
Carians.  It  never  became  a  regular  word  in  the  best 
Greek.  We  must  assume  it  had  some  outlandish 
origin. 

Another  point  in  connection  with  these  three 
colossal  figures  is  that  they  were  sculptured  in  a 
kneeling  posture.  In  archaic  Greek  art,  especially  in 
quarters  where  it  was  influenced  by  the  Phoenicians 
and  Egyptians,  it  is  common  enough  to  find  terra- 
cotta statuettes  in  this  posture  which  have  all  the 
appearance  of  reduced  copies  from  colossal  figures. 
Small  as  they  are,  they  retain  a  certain  hugeness  of 
aspect  which  is  not  altogether  grossness,  but  has  some- 
thing of  style  in  it  as  well.  We  can  imagine,  then, 
that  the  stand  of  the  Samian  vase  was  made  of  three 
such  kneeling  figures  set  more  or  less  back  to  back, 
and  that  Herodotus  in  calling  them  colossi  may  have 
been  guided  partly  by  their  Egyptian  aspect,  partly  by 
their  size,  which  after  all  was  considerable.  In  these 
circumstances  we  may  fairly  claim  this  vase  as  the 
work  of  men  who  had  been  trained  in  Egypt,  like 
Theodoros  and  Ehcecos. 

Pausanias,  speaking  of  the  statue  of  an  athlete 
at  Olympia,  the  date  of  which  was  568  B.C.,  says, 
"the  feet  are  hardly  separated  one  from  the  other, 
the  hands  fall  by  their  sides,  reaching  down  the 
thighs."  It  is  easy  for  us  under  the  subsequent 
light  of  art  to  see  how  stiff  and  ungainly  such 
a  figure  would  be.  But  while  the  attitude  of  the 
figure  was  no  doubt  chargeable  in  this  way,  we  are 


246    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AECHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


prepared  to  believe  that  there  had  been  bestowed  upon 
it  at  the  same  time  much  beauty  in  the  details,  such 
as  the  eyes,  mouth,  and  chin,  the  bones  of  the  knees, 
hands,  and  feet.  We  acquire  this  belief  from  certain 
very  archaic  statues  in  marble  which  have  survived. 
These  statues  fall  into  a  regular  series,  beginning  with 
the  very  elementary  degree  of  skill  exhibited  in  the 
Apollo  of  Orchomenos,  passing  with  only  a  slight 

step  to  the  Apollo  of 
Acraephnia,  or  the 
Apollo  from  Marion  in 
Cyprus  (Fig.  83),  to  the 
Strangford  Apollo,  and 
finally  to  the  Apollo  of 
Tenea  in  which  the 
bones,  muscles,  skin,  and 
in  general  all  the  details 
of  anatomy,  have  been 
studied  from  nature  and 
carefully  executed,  while 
at  the  same  time  no 
effort  has  been  made  to 
give  the  whole  figure 
vitality  and  movement. 
We  take  note  of  the 
admirable  effect  this 
early  apprenticeship  of 
diligent  and  faithful  attention  to  detail  must  have 
had  on  the  later  art  of  Greece.  As  regards  want  of 
vitality  there  is  this  consideration.  The  statue  from 
Cyprus  was  found  outside  a  tomb  and  had  been  made 
to  serve  as  a  funeral  monument,  just  as  the  Apollo  of 
Tenea  is  known  to  have  been.  Very  suitable  to 
the  circumstances  was  a  figure  in  which  a  minimum 


Fig.  83.  Marble  torso  from 
Marion,  Cyprus.    Brit.  Mus. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAEY. 


247 


of  vitality  was  expressed.  At  this  point  we  may- 
take  the  marble  statue  of  Hera,  found  in  Samos,  and 
now  in  the  Louvre  (Fig.  84).  It  is  of  that  perpen- 
dicular style  which  the  Greeks  called  a  plank,  aavk. 
It  may  represent  that  image  of  Hera  at  Samos,  which 


Fig.  84.    Hera  of  Fig.  85.    Nike  of  Archermos. 

Samos.    Louvre.  Athens. 


preceded  the  statue  by  Smilis,  the  contemporary  of 
Daedalos  (Paus.  vii.  4,  5). 

It  is  said  that  the  first  sculptors  in  Greece  who 
distinguished  themselves  in  working  in  marble  were 
a  family  of  Chios  descended  from  the  sculptor  Melas. 
In  the  next  generation  we  have  Mikkiades  and 
Archermos,  whose  skill  is  attested  by  the  marble 


248    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY,     [Chap.  VII. 

statue  of  Nike  (Fig.  85),  which  was  discovered  a 
few  years  ago  in  the  island  of  Delos  with  its  pedestal, 
on  which  are  written  the  names  of  the  two  brothers 
Mikkiades  and  Archermos.1  She  is  represented  as 
moving  sidewards,  but  with  the  face  and  upper  part  of 
the  body  turned  to  the  front.  The  workmanship  is 
delicate  and  refined,  but  for  the  most  part  the  delicacy 
and  refinement  are  limited  by  formality  and  conven- 
tionalism, as  may  best  be  seen  by  the  treatment  of 
the  hair  with  its  fine  formal  curls.  Doubtless  it  was 
the  fashion  then  for  ladies  to  wear  their  hair  in  some 
such  artificial  arrangement ;  but  still  it  is  possible  for 
an  artist  to  render  artificial  fashions  of  that  kind  in  an 
artistically  free  manner,  if  it  is  in  his  power  to  work 
with  freedom  at  all.  It  is  not,  however,  only  in  the 
hair  but  also  in  the  movement  and  drapery  of  the 
Victory  that  we  see  the  formal  restraint  under  which 
the  sculptors  were  labouring.  In  particular  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  in  the  movement  of  the  Victory  which  is  to 
the  left  with  the  right  leg  advanced,  the  left  leg 
comes  forward  so  as  to  form  a  nearer  plane  and  gives 
the  statue  the  aspect  as  of  a  relief  with  two  planes. 
The  drapery  is  treated  in  the  manner  of  a  relief,  and 
indeed  the  general  attitude  of  the  figure,  presenting  its 
greatest  surface  full  to  the  front  and  as  flat  as  possible 
retains  much  of  the  appearance  of  an  archaic  relief." 2 

1  Loewy,  '  Gr.  Bildhauer,'  p.  3,  No.  1.  Since  then  new  readings 
of  the  inscription  have  been  proposed  by  Mr.  Six  ('  Mittheilungen 
d.  Inst,  in  Athen,'  xiii.  p.  142)  and  by  M.  Lolling  ('  Ephemer. 
Arch.'  1888,  p.  71).  M,  Lolling  reads:  MiKKid[d;]$  rob'  ayaX]^a 
KaX6\v  p  dveSrjKe  kcu  vios]  "Ap^ep/xo?  (o-)o((£)i?70-tJ>  'EK^/SofAco 
€KTe\4(ra.VT€s~\  oi  Xloi  MeXavos  Tvarpcoiov  ckt[tv  vefxovres. 

2  F.  Winter,  c  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  224,  points  out  the  great  exact- 
ness of  detail  noticeable  in  the  face  of  the  Nike.  He  is  led  to  assume 
that  a  system  of  measurements  for  the  various  parts  of  the  human 
figure  had  been  in  use  among  sculptors  even  in  those  early  times. 


Chap.  TIL] 


STATUAKY. 


249 


It  was  said  of  Archermos,  that  he  had  been  the  first 
to  give  Victory  wings  or  at  least  that  he  had  been 
the  first  to  represent  her  in  the  act  of  flying  through 
the  air,  as  she  is  meant  to  be  represented  in  the  Delos 
statue.  But  whether  this  was  so  or  not,  we  have  in 
this  statue  an  example  of  sculpture  in  marble  from 
the  hands  of  the  men  who  first  brought  this  branch  of 
sculpture  into  fame.  Archermos  was  followed  by  his 
sons  Bupalos  and  Athenis  from  whom  no  work  has 
survived  so  far.  But  it  is  known  of  Bupalos,  that 
he  had  sculptured  figures  of  the  Graces  for  the 
temple  of  Nemesis  at  Smyrna,  and  that  these  Graces 
were  draped  (Paus.  ix.  35,  6).  At  Pergamon  also 
were  to  be  seen  figures  of  Graces  by  him.  Under  a 
rapidly  advancing  art  Bupalos  may  be  conceived  as 
having  surpassed  the  work  of  his  father,  much  as 
certain  statues  (Figs.  86-88)  found  of  late  years  on 
the  Acropolis  of  Athens  surpass  the  Nike  of  Archermos. 
These  also  are  draped  female  figures,  and  possibly  in 
their  attitudes  they  do  not  much  differ  from  the 
Graces  of  Bupalos. 

From  their  uniformity  of  aspect  and  from  the 
fact  of  their  having  been  found  together  close  to 
the  Erechtheum  these  statues  may  be  supposed  to 
have  originally  stood  beside  each  other  in  some  spot 
not  far  from  where  they  were  discovered.  Many 
fragments  of  pedestals  were  found  at  the  same  time 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  the  goddess  Athene,  and  if 
these  fragments  belong  to  the  statues,  then  the 
statues  had  been  placed  on  the  Acropolis  in  her 
honour.  But  if  the  statues  were  meant  to  represent 
Athene  herself,  it  could  not  have  been  in  her  usual 
character ;  for  then  she  wore  a  helmet  and  aegis,  and 
carried  a  shield  and  spear.    It  may  have  been  in  her 


250    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


capacity  of  Athene  Ergane,  the  patroness  of  skilled 
industry. 

On  the  heads  of  several  of  these  statues  rise 
metal  rods,  which  had  served  for  the  attachment  of 
some  object  carried  on  the  head.  What  the  object 
had  been  it  is  perhaps  impossible  to  say,  but  if  we 
compare  the  remains  of  Greek  sculpture  in  general  we 
shall  hardly  be  able  to  find  a  better  suggestion  than 
that  of  a  modius  or  cylindrical  basket  such  as  was 
carried  on  the  head  by  those  figures  which  we  call 
Canephorae.  If  the  marble  statues  of  the  Acropolis,  or 
some  of  them,  had  a  modius  on  the  head,  we  might 
regard  them  as  prototypes  of  the  famous  Caryatids  of 
the  Erechtheum  which  with  one  exception,  still  stand 
close  by*  In  these  Caryatids,  or,  as  we  might  equally 
well  call  them,  Charites  or  Graces,  the  modius  on  the 
head  is  reduced  to  something  like  the  echinus  of  a 
Doric  capital,  while  the  action  of  taking  hold  of  the 
skirt  with  one  hand  but  not  pulling  it  aside,  may 
be  viewed  as  a  later  version  of  the  archaic  manner 
of  distinctly  pulling  it  aside,  as  in  Fig.  88,  and 
several  others  of  the  statues  of  the  Acropolis.  It 
is  known  that  the  Graces  (Charites)  had  an  archaic 
sanctuary  at  the  entrance  to  the  Acropolis,  and  reliefs 
have  been  found  at  the  Propylsea,  on  which  they  are 
represented  under  a  type  of  figure  closely  resembling 
these  statues.1 

That  these  Acropolis  statues  cover  a  considerable 
period  of  progress  will  be  seen  from  a  comparison  of 
Figs.  86,  87.  In  the  former,  archaic  minuteness  of 
finish  in  every  detail  is  seen  to  perfection.  It  is 
combined  with  archaic  restraint  in  adhering  to  a  fixed 

1  See  the  relief  found,  Jan.  1889,  close  to  the  Propylasa.  '  Bul- 
letin de  Corr.  Hellen.'  1889,  PL  14,  p.  467. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAKY. 


251 


expression  of  face,  and  a  fixed  type  of  features,  with  full 
lips  turning  up  at  the  corners,  a  strong  chin  and  over- 
hanging eyelids.   In  Fig.  87  the  long  tresses  of  the  hair 


Fig.  86.    Bust  of  marble  statue.   Acropolis,  Athens. 


have  become  free  and  wavy.  Instead  of  minute  curls 
over  the  forehead,  we  have  wavy  masses  of  hair  ;  the  lips 
are  less  full,  and  the  mouth  has  lost  the  formal  smile  of 
older  art,  the  nose  becomes  straight,  the  eyes  more 


252    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  TIL 


natural,  and  the  form  of  the  chest  more  soft  and  pleasing. 
It  is  in  short  a  fine  effort  at  a  new  and  higher  ideal. 

A  noticeable  feature  in  these  Acropolis  statues  is 
the  brightness  and  variety  of  the  colouring  which  has 


Fig.  87.    Upper  part  of  marble  statue.    Acropolis,  Athens. 


been  employed  on  the  borders  of  the  dresses,  on  the 
diadems,  the  eyes  and  lips.  On  the  borders  of  the 
dress  the  usual  ornament  is  the  mseander  or  key-pattern, 
more  or  less  simple  or  complex.    On  the  diadem  the 


Chap.  VII.J 


STATUARY. 


253 


pattern  is  generally  a  row  of  upright  palmettes  like 
an  earlier  stage  of  the  pattern  known  to  us  as  the 
anthemion  or  honey-suckle.  These  patterns  are  so 
set  out  on  the  marble  as  to  present  sometimes  a  very 
agreeable  combination  of  green,  red,  and  white.  In 
one  of  the  borders  of  Fig.  87  the  ornament  consisted 
of  a  row  of  chariot  groups  racing  one  behind  the 
other,  like  a  prototype  of  part  of  the  Parthenon 
frieze. 1  The  lines  faintly  incised  on  the  marble 
are  still  visible  in  parts,  but  the  colours  have  faded. 
The  principal  colours  employed  on  these  statues 
are  red,  green,  blue,  and  grey.  In  some  borders 
there  is  a  combination  of  red,  green,  and  white. 
The  colour  which  has  stood  best  is  the  green.  These 
colours,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  were  not  employed  to 
cover  poverty  of  material.  The  marble  is  Parian  and 
from  modern  practice  it  would  appear  that  nothing 
needs  less  aid  from  colour.  To  the  early  Greeks 
marble  was  as  yet  an  unattractive  substance,  dug  from 
the  earth  in  large  masses  and  of  no  intrinsic  value. 
They  had  been  accustomed  to  sculpture  in  gold  and 
ivory,  silver,  bronze,  ebony,  and  cedar-wood,  more  or 
less  combined  into  a  rich  effect.  At  the  same  time 
we  must  not  forget  that  the  very  frequent  confining  of 
colour  to  the  borders  and  details  of  dress  and  to  such 
parts  of  the  face  as  are  strongly  coloured  by  nature  as 
the  eyes,  lips,  and  hair,  was  itself  a  concession  to  the 
beauty  resident  in  marble. 

On  the  pedestal  of  one  of  the  Acropolis  statues 
(Fig.  88)  are  written  the  name  of  the  person  at 
whose  cost  the  statue  was  erected  and  the  name 
of  the  sculptor,  Antenor.     The   person  who  paid 

1  Engraved  in  '  Jahrbuch,'  1887,  p.  217,  in  an  article  by 
F.  Winter,  '  Zur  Altattischen  Kunst.' 


254    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


that  the 


the  expense  bears  the  well-known  name  of  a  vase 
painter.  More  than  that,  the  inscription  tells  us 
sculptor  himself,  Antenor,  was  the  son 
of  a  vase  painter  whom 
we  also  knew  before 
from  literary  records,  in 
which  he  is  credited  with 
a  certain  boldness  of  in- 
vention beyond  his  con- 
temporaries. It  may  be 
remembered  that  Pheidias 
also  was  the  son  of  a 
painter,  and  it  is  perhaps 
allowable  to  speculate  that 
the  influence  of  one  art 
upon  another,  of  which  we 
hear  so  much  in  historical 
studies,  may  oftener  than 
is  supposed  have  taken  a 
hereditary  turn.  It  is  with 
Antenor  himself,  however, 
that  we  are  now  concerned. 

He  had  been  known  to 
us  before  because  of  a  cer- 
tain bronze  group  which 
had  become  celebrated  in 
antiquity  from  the  strange 
vicissitudes  through  which 
it  passed.  It  was  a  group 
which  represented  the  two 
tyrannicides,  Harmodios  and  Aristogeiton,  striking 
down  the  tyrant  Hipparchos  in  Athens  in  the 
middle  of  a  great  public  ceremony.  The  incident 
was   momentous,    because    it    proved    to    be  the 


N£A  >  +<K  A  ^£©£  Ki AHOHY» 
YU  >AOWArA^££TA©ENAIA| 

O  EYM  A  >Oi.  TO  AAA  £  M  g 


Fig.  88.  Restoration  of  marble 
statue,  with  base  bearing  name 
of  Antenor.    Acropolis,  Athens. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


255 


too  long.  It  was  no  wonder  that  an  incident  so 
pregnant  with  great  consequences  was  ordered  to  be 


256     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCH2EOLOGY.     [Chap.  VII. 


commemorated  publicly  by  a  work  of  sculpture,  and 
equally  it  was  not  strange  that  the  Persian  king 
Xerxes,  himself  the  model  of  a  tyrant,  should  have 
had  something  to  say  about  the  group,  when  he  found 
Athens  at  his  feet.  One  would  have  expected  that  he 
would  lose  no  time  in  ordering  its  destruction.  But 
no  ;  tradition  says  that  he  carried  it  off  to  Persia,  where 
it  remained  for  several  centuries,  being  ultimately 
restored  to  Athens  by  Alexander  the  Great  or  one  of  his 
successors.  In  the  meantime  the  Athenians  ordered  a 
copy  to  be  made  of  their  favourite  group  and  set  it  up 
in  a  frequented  spot  near  the  Areopagus.  It  was  not 
Antenor  that  made  this  copy.  At  least  thirty  years 
had  elapsed  since  his  original  group  was  made,  and 
possibly  he  was  by  this  time  too  old,  or  may  have 
gone  over  to  the  majority.  Two  sculptors  were 
employed  to  reproduce  the  group  of  Antenor,  but  as 
to  whether  they  had  been  pupils  of  his  or  not  we  have 
no  information.  Nor  can  we  tell  how  far  they  had 
adhered  to  the  original  motive. 

It  happens  that  a  group  of  tyrannicides  is  known  to 
us  from  ancient  copies  ;  it  has  been  recognised  in  two 
marble  statues  in  the  Museum  of  Naples  (Fig.  89),  on 
a  painted  vase  from  Athens  in  the  British  Museum  and 
on  coins.  But  what  is  strange  in  all  these  representa- 
tions of  the  group,  is,  that  the  victim  Hipparchos  is 
missing.  You  see  Harmodios  and  Aristogeiton  ad- 
vancing side  by  side  with  murderous  intent,  but  with 
no  enemy  before  them  ;  and  yet  in  the  original  group 
the  victim  must  have  been  present  much  as  we  see  him 
on  a  fragment  of  a  painted  vase  recently  found  on  the 
Acropolis.  The  only  explanation  that  occurs  to  me  is 
that  Xerxes,  having,  very  properly  from  his  point  of 
view,  destroyed  the  figure  of  the  fallen  Hipparchos, 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


257 


had  at  the  same  time  carried  off  the  two  slayers  of  him, 
either  to  vex  the  Athenians  or  from  admiration  of  them 
as  works  of  art.  He  would  be  free  to  admire  them 
when  the  figure  of  Hipparchos  was  once  removed. 
When  the  group  was  returned  to  Athens,  it  would,  of 
course,  consist  of  only  the  two  figures,  the  vicissitudes 
of  which  would  attract  public  attention  and  lead  to 
representations  of  them  being  made  on  coins  and 
vases. 

Of  the  two  Naples  statues,  one  has  been  much 
restored  in  modern  times,  and  is  of  small  use  as  an 
illustration  of  archaic  Greek  art.  The  other  has 
fortunately  been  fairly  well  preserved.  This  is  the 
nearer  of  the  two  in  Fig.  89.  It  is  a  figure  of  a 
very  rugged  build,  with  a  long  body  thrown  well 
forward,  so  as  to  bring  out  strongly  the  forms  and 
structure  of  the  bones.  The  legs  are  comparatively 
short,  showing  that  already  a  change  had  begun 
from  the  oldest  manner  of  a  short  body  and  long 
legs.  In  the  face  and  head,  the  structure  of  bone 
is  rendered  in  a  rough,  strong  fashion.  Altogether 
the  figure  reflects  admirably  the  rude  strength  of 
the  times,  with  considerable  knowledge  of  struc- 
ture and  form,  but  without  the  power  of  conceiving 
the  human  figure  as  an  organism  perfectly  free  in  its 
movements. 

There  had  never  been  actual  proof  that  the  two 
Naples  statues  were  ancient  copies  from  the  group  by 
Antenor.  Some  had  supposed  them  to  be  rather 
oopies  from  the  group  substituted  for  it  in  Athens. 
But  now  that  a  statue  (Fig.  88),  which  is  claimed  to 
be  by  Antenor,  has  been  found  on  the  Acropolis,  there 
is,  or  ought  to  be,  an  opportunity  of  comparing  the  two, 

s 


258    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


and  perhaps  deciding  the  matter.  The  face  of  the 
recently  found  statue  is  certainly  much  injured,  but 
still  there  is  enough  to  show  a  considerable  resem- 
blance of  treatment  when  it  is  compared  with  the 
other  head,  and  so  far  this  resemblance  is  in  favour  of 
the  view  that  the  Naples  statues  had  been  copied 
directly  from  the  group  of  Antenor. 

Before  leaving  the  statue  of  Antenor  it  may  be 
interesting  to  notice  the  peculiar  attitude  of  those 
archaic  draped  figures  holding  the  skirt  of  the  dress  a 
little  on  one  side.  It  is  a  very  general  attitude  in 
archaic  Greek  sculpture  and  has  apparently  no  analogy 
in  the  ancient  art  of  other  nations.  But  what  is  its 
meaning  ?  Possibly  some  hint  may  be  gained  from 
the  contemporary  poets.  Taking  Pindar's  "  Odes  " 
and  the  many  surviving  fragments  of  the  older  lyric 
poetry  which  go  back  into  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  we 
find  no  more  constant  reference  than  to  the  quality  of 
gracefulness,  or  charis,  as  they  called  it.  It  abounds  in 
Pindar,  and  even  the  much  older  Archilochus  says,  that 
in  his  time  they  valued  gracefulness  more  than  life, 
which  is  much  the  same  as  the  modern  saying,  "it  is  as 
well  to  be  out  of  the  world  as  out  of  the  fashion."  But 
gracefulness,  we  suppose,  is  confined  to  action  or  move- 
ment. The  action  or  movement  must  be  slight  and 
yet  it  must  manage  to  impress  itself  on  the  whole 
aspect  of  the  figure.  The  whole  figure  must  contri- 
bute to  the  production  of  the  sense  of  gracefulness, 
and  must  contribute  by  a  minimum  of  action  or 
movement.  No  doubt  this  effect  could  be  obtained  in 
many  different  ways.  In  these  archaic  statues  it 
appears  to  arise  from  a  consciousness  of  personal 
attraction  which  the  face,  the  attitude,  the  action  of 
the  hand  combine  to  express. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


259 


Charms  of  person  and  grace  of  demeanour  were 
powerful  elements  in  the  daily  life  of  the  period  imme- 
diately preceding  the  Persian  wars.    In  the  Athens  of 
those  days  Peisistratos  had  been  the  most  conspicuous 
figure,  and  had  owed  much  of  his  success  in  estab- 
lishing himself  as  tyrant  of  the  city  to  his  personal 
beauty  and  attractiveness.    He  must  have  divined  the 
tastes  of  the  people  well ;  for  it  is  told  that  his  plan 
of  seizing  the  Acropolis  and  installing  himself  as  ruler 
was  to  get  hold  of  a  handsome  young  lady,  dress  her 
up  as  the  goddess  Athene  and  drive  her  in  a  chariot 
through  the  streets.    The  people  followed  with  delight 
to  the  entrance  of  the  citadel,  and  only  recognised 
their  mistake  when  he  was  safe  within  it.    Still  their 
vexation  did  not  take  serious  root.    They  were  pros- 
perous.   The   tastes  of  the  time  were  such  as  to 
encourage  industries  and  the  minor  arts.  Everything 
tended  to  foster  skill  and  handicraft.  Peisistratos 
encouraged  the  public  intelligence.    He  gave  them  a 
free  library,  the  first  thing  of  the  kind  that  had  been 
heard  of.    He  set  scholars  to  collect  the  ballads  that 
were  then  floating  about  under  the  name  of  Homer, 
and  to  put  them  into  shape  for  general  reading  or 
for  educational  purposes,  connecting  them  into  one 
narrative  by  new  passages  skilfully  imitated  from  the 
phraseology  of  the  ballads  themselves.     But  amid 
all  these  circumstances  favourable  to  skill  and  in- 
dustry, there  was  no  impetus  to  higher  art.  Yet 
if  there  was  no  strong  impetus  to  the  higher  arts, 
there  was  much  to  urge  on  minute  knowledge  of 
details,  precision  and  grace  in  the  rendering  of  the 
details,  so  that  when  the  new  dawn  of  artistic  in- 
spiration should  come,  it  would  find  everything  ready 
that  skill  could  do. 

s  2 


260    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


Among  the  inscribed  pedestals  found  along  with  the 
statues  on  the  Acropolis  was  one  bearing  the  name  of 
Onatas,1  a  sculptor  much  praised  in  antiquity.  We 
read  often  of  him  and  of  the  -ZEginetan  school,  of 
which  he  was  the  chief  ornament.  We  possess  a  few  of 
the  metrical  inscriptions  which  he,  like  some  other 
sculptors  of  his  time,  used  to  place  on  the  pedestals  of 
his  works,  telling  that  he,  Onatas,  son  of  Micon,  living 
in  iEgina,  was  the  sculptor.  One  wonders  whether 
these  old  artists  always  went  to  some  poet  for  their 
verses.  The  verses  of  Onatas  may  not  be  poetically 
ambitious,  but  it  is  worth  remembering  for  a  moment 
that  the  times  must  have  been  very  simple  and 
natural  in  the  appreciation  of  art  when  the  right  thing 
for  a  sculptor  to  do  was  to  write  boldly  across  his 
pedestal  a  couple  of  verses  telling  his  parentage  and 
home,  occasionally  also  mentioning  some  previous 
work  that  he  had  done. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  assign  to  Onatas  part 
at  least  of  the  statues  obtained  from  a  temple  in 
iEgina,  and  now  in  Munich.  From  the  style  of  these 
sculptures  it  was  thought  that  they  must  belong  to 
his  time,  and  from  the  honour  and  esteem  in  which  he 
was  held  in  his  native  place  it  was  argued  that  he 
would  never  have  been  passed  over  in  so  conspicuous 
a  public  work  as  was  this  temple.  These  are  mere 
probabilities,  and  it  is  therefore  a  matter  of  deep  regret 
that  no  statue  has  yet  been  found  on  the  Acropolis  to 
fit  on  to  the  pedestal  bearing  the  name  of  Onatas.  It 
could  not  have  been  a  much  larger  statue  than  those 

1  See  '  Ephemeris  Archaiologike,'  1887,  p.  145.  Besides  the 
name  of  Onatas,  this  pedestal  bears  also  a  dedicatory  inscription, 
which  has  been  read :  Tipapxos  :  p  avi0r)Ke :  Aios  Kparepocfrlpovi 
Kovpj]  |  pavreicov  cjypacrpocrvpai  prjrpos  €Tr[rjpap>  C.  I.  A.,  iv. 
Suppl.  373". 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


261 


of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  and  they  are  all  a 
little  under  life-size. 

If  we  compare  Fig.  88,  as  representing  the  style  of 
Antenor,  with  the  figure  of  Athene  from  the  centre 
of  one  of  the  iEgina  pediments  as  representing  the 
style  of  Onatas,  we  shall  find  that  in  the  latter  the 
drapery  is  still  formal,  but  even  then  we  can  trace 
an  effort  at  freedom  in  the  smaller  folds  which  are 
produced  by  the  movement  of  the  legs.  The  larger 
folds  retain  the  conventional  manner.  So  also  in 
the  position  of  the  feet  you  may  observe  a  desire 
to  place  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  out  some- 
thing of  the  forms  of  the  legs,  as  well  as  to  give  a 
new  turn  to  the  minor  folds  of  the  dress.  In  general 
there  is  a  marked  advance  towards  freedom. 

It  happens  that  among  the  sculptures  of  the  Acropolis 
there  was  found  a  bronze  head,  which  from  the  point  of 
view  of  archaic  art  is  unrivalled  in  its  perfection 
(Fig.  90).  The  old  feeling  of  charis  or  grace  is  still 
dominant.  The  eye-brows  have  the  delicate  conven- 
tional arch.  The  eyelids  are  in  the  archaic  manner, 
though  more  graceful  in  their  lines,  as  are  also  the  full 
lips  with  strongly  marked  contours,  while  the  beard 
excels  in  the  refinement  of  form  and  detail  which  the 
archaic  manner  aimed  at.  The  ear  is  set  far  back, 
but  the  lines  of  it  exhibit  the  same  love  of  graceful 
curves  and  forms  which  characterises  the  archaic  period 
of  all  art.  On  the  head  has  been  a  helmet  made 
separately  and  attached  with  nails.  The  eyes  have 
been  inlaid  with  some  material  that  has  mostly 
perished. 

On  comparing  this  head  with  that  of  the  iEgina 
statues  in  Munich,  it  will  be  seen  that  considerable 
resemblance  exists  between  them,  so  much  so  that 


262    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


one  would  be  tempted  to  suppose  the  bronze  head  to 
be  in  reality  that  of  the  missing  statue  by  Onatas 
were  we  quite  sure  that  the  .ZEgina  statues  or  part 
of  them  had  actually  been  executed  by  him,  as  is 
generally  supposed.  At  all  events  we  have  in  this 
bronze  head  a  very  beautiful  example  of  the  sculpture 
of  his  time,  most  carefully  minute  in  its  details,  most 
devoted  to  graceful  curves  and  forms  and  yet  aiming 
at  a  general  truth  of  structure.    Some  have  thought 


Fig.  90.    Bronze  head.    Acropolis  of  Athens. 

this  bronze  head  to  be  the  work  of  Ageladas,  finding 
in  it  just  those  qualities  of  minute  finish,  grace, 
and  general  knowledge  of  structure  for  which  he  is 
famed. 

We  have  seen  in  the  marble  statues  how  much 
bright  colours  were  admired  for  borders  of  draperies 
and  the  like.   We  cannot  expect  to  find  on  the  bronzes 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


263 


the  same  extent  of  bright  colours.  Yet  there  are 
instances  where  we  have  an  equivalent,  in  particular 
a  very  beautiful  statuette  of  this  period  in  the  British 
Museum,  where  the  drapery  is  enriched  with  a  con- 
spicuous border  of  the  maeander  pattern  inlaid  in 
silver.  In  another  respect  the  statuette  is  unique,  its 
eyes  are  made  of  diamonds.  In  bronze  sculpture  the 
eyes  were  usually  made  of  some  bright  material,  mostly 
in  the  form  of  glass  paste  or  of  ivory  for  the  white  of 
the  eye  and  ebony  for  the  pupil.  We  read  also  of 
precious  stones  being  used,  not  however  diamonds. 
Apart  from  these  technical  matters  this  statuette  is 
remarkable  for  the  great  beauty  of  the  face,  which  may 
fairly  be  regarded  as  a  prototype  of  the  Athene  of 
Pheidias,  as  we  know  it  from  copies  that  still  exist,  such, 
for  example,  as  the  marble  figure  found  in  Athens 
some  years  ago,  or  a  bronze  statuette  (PI.  XX.),  which 
appears  to  be  a  copy  of  his  Athene  Promachos,  the 
colossal  statue  of  bronze  which  stood  on  the  Acro- 
polis. 

The  effort  of  the  Athenians  at  this  time  towards  a 
large  ideal  style  is  shown  by  another  example  from 
the  Acropolis.  It  is  a  bronze  head  of  a  statue.  Its 
resemblance  in  type  and  style  to  the  head  of  Apollo 
from  the  west  pediment  of  Olympia,  is  striking  in  the 
highest  degree  (PL  XIV.).  Now  the  sculptures  of  the 
west  pediment  of  Olympia  are  remarkable  for  nothing 
so  much  as  the  largeness  of  their  style,  and  yet  it  is 
a  largeness  of  style  which  the  sculptor  has  only  been 
able  to  attain  by  allowing  himself  extraordinary  negli- 
gence of  detail.  His  work  represents  the  first  great 
revulsion  against  the  old  formality  and  precision. 
It  shows  him  to  have  been  incapable  as  yet  to 
combine  with  his  largeness  and  idealism  the  necessary 


264    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


truth  to  general  detail  which  Pheidias  knew  how  to 
combine. 

Nor  is  the  statue  of  Nike  by  Pseonios  at  Olyinpia 
(Fig.  91)  free  from  this  defect,  though  the  production 
of  a  figure  in  the  round  would  have  naturally  invited 
greater  accuracy  of  detail  than  we  find  in  the  pedi- 
ment sculptures,  where  the  task  was  more  akin  to 
working  in  relief.  This  statue,  according  to  the  in- 
scription on  its  base,  was  made  by  Paeon ios  after  he 
had  completed  the  sculptures  on  the  acroteria  of  the 
temple,  and  if  we  assume  that  these  sculptures  con- 
sisted of  figures  of  Nike,  as  we  may  reasonably  do,  then 
the  statue  in  question  would  probably  be  more  or  less 
a  replica  of  them.  That  would  justify  the  adherence 
of  Pseonios  to  a  more  strictly  architectonic  treatment 
of  his  figure  than  he  might  otherwise  have  arrived  at, 
and  would  also  perhaps  explain  his  use  of  the  word 
ivUa  in  the  inscription,  as  meaning  not  that  he  con- 
quered in  a  competition,  but  that  he  made  so  many 
figures  of  Victory  as  to  suggest  a  play  on  the  word,  viz., 
that  he  also  was  a  victor.  These  sculptures  of  Olympia 
are  older  than  those  of  the  Parthenon.  They  are 
supposed  to  have  been  finished  about  midway  between 
the  Persian  invasion  and  the  sculptures  of  the 
Parthenon.  But  now  we  find  among  the  ruins  of  the 
Acropolis  older  than  the  Persian  invasion  an  example 
of  the  same  large  rough  style,  from  which  we  may 
conclude  that  art  had  been  making  efforts  towards 
its  high  ideal  at  an  earlier  period  than  had  been 
supposed. 

The  figures  which  occupied  the  pediments  of  the 
Parthenon  are  sculptured  in  the  round,  and  the  backs 
of  them,  though  rarely  finished  with  the  same  care 
as  the  fronts,  are  yet  for  the  most  part  fine  examples 


Fig.  9] .    Statue  of  Victory  by  Pseonio3.  Olympia. 


266    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


of  art.  Bat  these  sculptures  were  not  intended  to  be 
seen  as  they  are  now  seen  in  the  British  Museum. 
They  were  placed  with  their  backs  hard  against  the 
wall  of  the  pediment,  and  so  far  were  invisible.  Was 
it,  then,  useless  to  carve  the  backs  of  these  figures 
with  so  much  thought  and  skill  ?  But  we  may 
equally  well  ask,  was  it  useless  for  Raphael  to  first 
draw  his  figures  in  the  nude  and  then  put  in  the 
drapery  on  them  ? 

The  question  is  not  without  importance.  For 
though  it  may  be  neglected  or  set  aside,  as  in  the 
pediments  at  Olympia,  under  the  influence  of  a  training 
in  sculpture  in  relief,  yet,  this  influence  apart,  it  seems 
hardly  possible  for  a  sculptor  to  make  sure  of  the  front 
aspect  of  his  figures,  until  he  has  at  least  thought  out 
or  sketched  out  the  backs  also.  While  again  from 
the  point  of  view  of  a  spectator,  a  work  of  art  no  less 
than  a  scene  in  nature  unconsciously  affects  him  by 
much  that  he  does  not  see.  Many  things  invisible  to 
him  are  working  together  to  produce  a  total  effect 
which  he  admires,  and  in  these  circumstances  he  is 
not  entitled  to  say  that  the  same  effect  could  have 
been  produced  by  just  the  things  he  has  recognised 
and  no  more. 

If  then  a  sculptor  bestows  much  thought  and  care 
on  the  back  of  a  statue  which  is  not  to  be  visible,  we 
may  conclude  that  he  has  been  possessed  of  a  spirit 
of  realism  which  has  compelled  him  to  aim  at  the 
greatest  possible  completeness  in  the  total  effect  of 
his  figure. 

In  the  sculptures  of  Olympia,  idealism  had  the  upper 
hand.  It  produced  types  of  beings  of  a  noble  order. 
But  they  were  deficient  in  the  reality  of  life.  They 
sought  nobility  of  type  at  the  cost  of  truthfulness  to 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAKY. 


267 


actual  detail.  On  the  Parthenon  the  balance  was  re- 
dressed. Keality  of  detail,  of  proportion,  of  costume,  of 
action,  was  combined  with  an  ideal  conception  of  beings 
of  the  highest  order.  In  archaic  art  there  had  been 
abundance  of  realism  of  detail,  but  it  was  not  a  realism 
of  the  whole  of  the  details  of  a  figure,  only  of  a 
part  of  them,  and  that  a  part  which  most  directly 
apjDealed  to  the  spectator.  On  the  Parthenon  we 
have  a  realism  of  the  whole  which  even  goes  so  far 
as  to  sculpture  finely  the  invisible  backs  of  the 
figures.  But  observe,  it  is  not  a  realism  that  goes 
down  to  the  minutest  details.  It  is  not  master  of  the 
situation. 

The  sculptor  responsible  for  all  the  work  of  the 
Parthenon  was  Pheidias.  It  was  not  in  the  character 
of  the  times  nor  of  the  training  he  had  received  to 
give  up  that  dwelling  of  the  imagination  on  possible 
types  of  beings  which  should  transcend  the  best 
that  nature  produces  in  form  and  in  spiritual  endow- 
ment. That  he  could  not  surrender ;  he  was  bent 
on  reconciling  it  with  the  realities  of  natural  form, 
action,  and  costume.  In  such  a  task  there  must  have 
been  a  vast  amount  of  give  and  take,  which  cannot 
now  be  analysed  and  apportioned.  But  we  can  bear 
in  mind  this  main  fact  that  Pheidias,  finding  in 
practice  a  realism  which  was  excessive  in  parts  but 
defective  as  a  whole,  and  an  idealism  which  was 
excessive  as  a  whole  but  defective  in  details,  redressed 
the  balance  in  these  matters. 

Let  us  consider  more  particularly  the  east  pediment, 
from  which  the  two  great  groups  in  the  angles  have 
survived  ;  they  are  now  in  the  British  Museum.  The 
subject  of  the  whole  composition  was  the  birth  of  the 
goddess  Athene  from  the  head  of  her  father  Zeus. 


268    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


That  event  took  place  at  daybreak.  Earth  and  sea 
trembled  in  surprise,  although  it  was  neither  on  earth 
nor  on  sea,  but  high  in  Olympos  that  she  was  born. 
But  while  in  poetic  language  earth  and  sea  were 
moved  by  the  great  event,  we  are  uncertain  whether 
the  sculptor  included  these  phenomena  in  his  design, 
whether  in  fact  the  figures  at  the  extremities  of 
the  composition  are  personifications  or  representa- 
tions of  the  earth  and  sea,  and  are  as  such  intended 
to  exhibit  the  effect  produced  on  the  world  by  the 
sudden  birth  of  the  goddess. 

What  we  do  know  from  the  figures  of  the  pediment 
which  have  survived,  is  that  the  sculptor  employed 
the  element  of  surprise  so  as  to  knit  together  his  com- 
position on  both  sides  of  the  central  group.  We  can 
see  from  the  attitudes  of  the  figures  that  the  surprise 
had  been  produced  by  a  great  sound  and  commotion 
in  the  centre,  diminishing  in  volume  towards  the 
extremes ;  the  figures  in  the  two  extremes  are  turned 
away  from  the  centre  and  could  not  see  what  was 
going  on  there.  They  could  only  hear ;  those  the 
most  remote  hear  the  least  and  are  least  moved.  Such 
a  graduation  of  effect  towards  the  extremities  of  the 
composition  would  hardly  be  explicable  if  the  whole 
of  the  figures  were  conceived  as  being  in  Olympos. 
Still  less  is  it  likely  that  any  of  the  divine  inhabitants 
of  Olympos  would  have  their  backs  turned  to  so 
momentous  an  event  as  the  birth  of  Athene  in  their 
midst,  and  this  turning  of  their  backs  to  the  centre 
is  itself  a  strong  argument  for  regarding  the  figures 
at  both  extremes  of  the  composition  as  representing  in 
some  way  or  other  earth  and  sea  or  other  mundane 
phenomena.  It  does  not  follow  that  they  are  mere 
personifications  of  this  or  that  mountain  or  stretch  of 


€hap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


269 


coast.  It  is  enough  that  they  represent  the  effect  of 
the  birth  of  Athene  on  the  world  beneath  Olympos, 
in  particular  on  Attica. 

We  may  now  examine  more  closely  the  statue 
.commonly  known  as  Theseus  (PL  XVI.).  Between  him 
and  the  left  extremity  of  the  pediment  there  was  only 
space  for  the  sun-god  Helios  rising  from  the  sea  with 
Jiis  chariot  of  four  horses.  Theseus,  or  Dionysos  as  he 
is  also  called  among  other  appellations,  is  turned 
towards  Helios,  as  indeed  the  triangular  shape  of  the 
pediment  required.  The  shape  of  the  pediment  had 
been  known  to  the  sculptor  when  he  was  preparing  his 
design,  and  we  may  safely  assume  that  in  conceiving 
the  composition  as  a  whole  it  was  no  small  matter  for 
him  to  find  that  the  subject  could  be  treated  at  once 
powerfully  and  suitably  to  the  exigencies  of  the  space, 
by  turning  the  figures  at  the  extremities  away  from 
the  centre.  He  shows  us  the  sun  rising  in  front  of 
Theseus,  and  if  we  interpret  the  scene  literally  we 
must  suppose  that  the  sun's  rays  will  directly  illumine 
the  body  of  Theseus. 

But  is  it  possible  for  a  sculptor  to  convey  this  in- 
terpretation ?  He  is  not  like  a  painter,  in  whose 
picture  the  light  never  changes,  for  whom  in  truth  the 
sun  stands  still  the  moment  he  wishes  it.  A  sculptor 
must  reckon  with  a  light  which  changes  steadily  all 
day  long.  At  daybreak  in  Athens,  in  the  spring,  the 
rays  of  the  sun  strike  the  angle  of  the  Parthenon 
pediment  where  this  figure  was  placed,  and  at  that 
moment  the  actual  light  of  the  morning  would  coincide 
with  the  imagined  light  of  the  marble  Helios,  giving 
us  a  literal  rendering  of  the  scene  ;  but  for  the  rest  of 
the  day  the  figure  would  be  subject  to  the  continual 
change  of  light  as  the  sun  passed  round  from  east  to 


270    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chai\  VII. 


west.     In  these  circumstances  it  would  be  a  triumph 
of  genius  to  sculpture  the  figure  of  Theseus  in  such  a 
manner  that  through  all  the  changes  of  the  day  he 
should  constantly  in  some  degree  or  other  appear  to  us 
as  a  distinctly  sunlit  figure,  as  if  the  marble  Helios 
were  all  day  long  shedding  his  light  on  him.    It  may 
be  affirmed  that  Pheidias  has  endeavoured  to  obtain 
this  result.    But  this  principle,  it  will  be  said,  should 
hold  good  of  the  other  figures  in  the  composition, 
which  should  appear  during  the  glare  of  day  as  if  they 
were  seated  in  the  dim  dawn  of  morning.    We  do  not 
assert  positively  that  this  has  been  done ;  but  surely 
no  one  can  look  at  the  other  figures  of  the  pediment 
next  to  Theseus  without  feeling  that  in  the  strong  pro- 
jections and  deep  recesses,  in  the  innumerable  shadows 
which  play  round  them,  there  is  an  effect  which  recalls 
nothing  better  than  early  morn,  when  shadows  are 
supreme  over  the  face  of  nature.    Remember  we  are 
dealing  with  a  sculptor  to  whom  this  was  only  one  of 
many  other,  and  some  of  them  more  vital  effects 
which  he  had  to  produce.    And  now  let  us  look  at 
the  Theseus  again. 

A  modern  critic  of  the  greatest  eminence  believes 
the  statue  to  be  a  personification  of  Mount  Olympos, 
while  an  artist,  even  more  distinguished,  finds  a 
singular  charm  in  this  idea,  the  bare  sun-lit  forms  of 
a  Greek  mountain  being  to  his  mind  finely  suggested 
by  the  forms  of  the  Theseus.  We  may  not  agree  to 
call  him  Olympos,  but  we  cannot  dispute  the  truth  of 
the  observation.  The  Theseus  is  massive  in  his  forms 
and  bare  like  a  Greek  hill.  He  is  turned  mainly  to 
the  imagined  light  of  Helios,  but  is  partly  turned  also 
to  the  ordinary  light,  which  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  day  would  only  reach  him  indirectly.     In  such 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAKY. 


271 


light  the  modelling  of  the  bones  and  muscles  in  a 
figure  so  powerfully  built,  would  be  expected  to  stand 
out  boldly  in  light  and  shadow.  But  somehow  the 
Theseus  does  not  convey  to  us  this  effect.  The  forms 
of  his  body,  though  they  are  massive  and  powerful,  are 
yet  made  to  lie  as  far  as  possible  in  one  large  plane,  as 
if  the  intention  were  that  the  natural  shadows  should 
be  chased  away  from  them ;  the  front  of  the  body 
presents  an  extraordinarily  large  surface  compared 
with  its  thickness  and  roundness.  Indeed  its  thick- 
ness and  roundness  are  much  below  what  would 
naturally  be  looked  for. 

Apart,  however,  from  this  question  of  light,  there  is 
both  in  the  Theseus  and  in  the  Ilissos  of  the  west 
pediment,  a  noticeable  effect  produced  by  the  attitudes 
in  which  they  are  placed.  Both  of  them  have  the 
upper  part  of  the  body  turned  round  sufficiently  to 
bring  out  the  markings  of  the  ribs  and  chest  in  strik- 
ing contrast  with  the  softer  parts  of  the  body  adjoining. 
For  a  moment  we  cannot  help  thinking  that  there  is 
too  much  bone  displayed — too  much  of  the  skeleton. 
But  here  we  are  reminded  that  in  sculpture  which  was 
intended  to  adorn  a  great  temple  like  the  Parthenon, 
where  powerful  lines  of  construction  are  strikingly 
visible  at  every  point,  it  was  necessary  that  the  forms 
of  the  statues  should  to  the  utmost  possible  degree 
partake  of  this  element  of  construction,  and  should 
display  by  preference  the  long,  clearly  defined  outlines 
of  the  principal  bones,  together  with  a  flat,  and  if 
necessary,  hard  treatment  of  the  flesh,  avoiding 
whatever  from  its  roundness  was  suggestive  of 
instability. 

At  the  other  extreme  of  the  pediment  the  moon 
(Selene)  descends  behind  the  horizon,  her  body  down 


272    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


to  the  waist  being  still  visible,  as  is  also  the  in- 
comparable head  of  one  of  her  horses.  On  the  painted 
vases  the  more  usual  representations  of  Selene  show  her 
riding  sidewards  on  horseback,  and  in  some  instances 
the  group  is  so  poetically  conceived  as  to  raise  an 
expectation  that  on  the  Parthenon  also  she  may  have 
appeared  riding.  But  besides  the  horse's  head  in  the 
British  Museum  there  are  still  on  the  Parthenon  the 
remains  of  three  more  horses,  from  which  it  follows 
that  Selene,  like  Helios,  drove  a  chariot  of  four  horses. 
Both  her  arms  have  been  extended  straight  out  from 
the  shoulders  as  if  in  driving,  while  there  remains  on 
the  back  of  her  shoulders  part  of  a  scarf,  the  ends  of 
which  had  fallen  over  her  arms,  as  is  often  seen  in 
drivers  of  chariots. 

Behind  Selene  are  the  three  draped  figures  commonly 
called  the  Fates  (PI.  XVII.).  We  know  from  a  marble 
relief  at  Madrid  and  from  ancient  literature  (e.g. 
Pindar,  Olymp.  vii.,  64,  and  Bergk,  6  Frag.  Poet. 
Lyr.  Gr.,'  p.  864),  that  the  Fates  were  present  at  the 
birth  of  Athene.  But  on  that  occasion  their  place  was 
close  to  the  central  group.  A  fragment  of  Euripides 
speaks  of  the  Fates  who  sit  nearest  to  the  throne  of 
Zeus  (Nauck,  6  Frag.  Poet.  Trag./  p.  437).  Equally 
certain  is  it  that  they  were  not  surprised  by  the  event, 
as  this  group  of  three  has  been.  Thus  the  distance  of 
these  figures  from  the  centre,  towards  which  indeed 
their  backs  have  been  turned  till  but  a  moment  ago, 
their  attitude  of  surprise,  and  eagerness  to  turn  round, 
seem  to  indicate  that  they  are  beings  who  in  some 
way  represent  the  earth  and  human  interests  as  affected 
by  the  birth  of  Athene. 

But  whatever  their  names,  it  is  enough  for  us  at 
the  moment  that  this  group  is  an  idealization  of 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


273 


draped  female  form  as  was  the  Theseus  of  nude  male 
form,  the  one  speaking  of  the  sun's  light,  the  other  of 
the  comparative  chill  of  night.  To  begin  with  the 
attitudes,  it  is  obvious  that  these  three  beings  have 
been  fashioned  able  to  move  in  any  way  they  please, 
to  sit,  or  lie,  or  rise,  or  stand,  or  run.  Hitherto  we 
have  seen  nothing  approaching  this  in  Greek  sculpture. 
Most  of  the  figures  we  have  met  with  stand  stiffly 
upright :  others  sit  equally  upright  and  rigid,  never 
suggesting  that  they  could  do  aught  else.  They  were 
made  to  convey  the  one  idea.  But  here  we  have 
beings  to  whom  it  is  the  mere  accident  of  the  scene 
that  they  happen  to  be  in  these  postures.  Their 
bodily  powers  are  perfect,  and  what  is  more,  these 
powers  are  perfectly  under  the  control  of  their  will. 
We  have  thus  for  the  first  time  beings  in  whom  the 
inner  and  the  outer  life  are  reconciled,  with  perfect 
freedom  of  will  and  perfect  freedom  of  form. 

As  regards  the  drapery,  it  also  presents  a  striking 
contrast  to  older  art  in  this  same  spirit  of  perfect 
freedom  as  compared  with  archaic  restraint.  In 
archaic  sculpture  we  have  admired  the  fine  fastidious 
folds  in  which  the  drapery  was  systematically  arranged, 
as  if  it  had  been  put  on  a  little  wet,  and  then  pressed 
into  shape.  Here  we  have  got  rid  of  fashion  and  its 
fastidiousness.  Beauty  is  found  in  the  wider  con- 
sideration of  what  is  necessary,  no  more  and  no  less, 
for  a  perfectly  noble  form.  That  determines  the 
amount  and  general  character  of  the  dress.  In 
particular  the  dress,  while  it  covers  the  forms,  has  no 
need  to  conceal  them.  It  must  in  fact  be  shown  to  be 
distinct  from  the  forms  beneath,  and  this  is  achieved 
by  treating  it  as  a  perfectly  distinct  thing,  movable 

T 


274    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCTLEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII, 


and  removable  at  pleasure.  It  thus  aims  at  a  beauty 
of  its  own,  and  calls  upon  the  sculptor  to  reproduce 
the  innumerable  charms  of  light  and  shade  which 
belong  to  it  under  this  aspect  of  an  accessory  with 
special  features  of  its  own.  It  is  like  the  movement 
of  a  clear  stream,  which  though  distinct  from  its  rocky 
bed  yet  owes  its  infinite  charm  largely  to  the  con- 
figuration of  that  bed. 

Before  passing  away  from  the  age  of  Pheidias,  it  is 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  he  had  two  great  rivals 
in  his  day,  Myron  and  Polycleitos,  both  of  whom 
contributed  largely  to  influence  subsequent  art,  and  to 
make  it  not  altogether  a  direct  development  of  the 
style  of  Pheidias  alone.  Myron,  Polycleitos  and 
possibly  also  Pheidias,  had  been  trained  under  one 
master,  Ageladas,  at  Argos.  From  him  they  had 
acquired  technical  mastery.  But  each  of  them  had  a 
peculiar  bent  of  genius,  and  each  took  his  own  path. 
Polycleitos  set  himself  to  a  reform  of  the  proportions 
which  it  had  been  usual  to  assign  to  the  human  figure. 
In  archaic  art  the  body  had  been  short  and  spare,  the 
legs  long  and  massive.  This  he  reversed,  making  the 
body  long  and  robust,  the  legs  shorter  in  comparison. 
Among  the  many  athletes  of  his  date  there  would  be 
some  of  this  type,  as  there  are  now.  It  may  even 
have  been  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  them  were  men 
of  these  proportions.  In  any  case  we  have  him  choos- 
ing this  type  as  his  ideal  for  the  male  figure.  Pheidias 
must  have  agreed  with  him  in  principle,  though  re- 
serving to  himself  the  freedom  of  modifying  it,  as  in 
the  Theseus  and  Ilissos  of  the  Parthenon;  for  this 
principle  of  proportions  lends  itself  better  than  any 
other  to  the  reconciliation  of  the  inner  with  the  outer 
vitality  of  men.   It  gives  size  and  dignity  to  the  chest 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAEY. 


275 


and  head,  wherein  lie  the  great  organs  of  the  inner 
life.  Polycleitos  moved  with  the  spirit  of  the  age  in 
this  particular,  and  confining  himself  to  single  statues, 
he  was  able  to  concentrate  on  each  of  them  the  full 
force  of  his  thoughts. 

He  is  said  to  have  embodied  his  canon  of  proportions 
in  two  statues,  the  one  a  spear-bearer  (Doryphoros), 
the  other  a  successful  athlete  binding  a  diadem  round 
his  head  (Diadumenos).  The  latter  is  represented  by 
Fig.  92,  but  evidently  with  many  modifications  which 
had  been  introduced  by  later  sculptors  between  the 
time  of  Polycleitos  and  the  Eoman  period  when  this 
particular  statue  was  made.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  the  Naples  statue  of  a  Doryphoros. 

Myron  was  more  original  in  his  bent.  His  first 
impulse  was  to  get  away  from  the  ever- recurring  gods 
and  heroes  in  the  art  of  his  master  and  his  older 
contemporaries.  He  went  direct  to  nature  for  a  new 
class  of  subjects.  He  studied  animals,  with  the  result 
that  he  produced  a  bronze  cow,  about  which  a  great 
number  of  epigrams  were  composed.  He  took  groups 
from  ordinary  life,  such  as  two  boys  playing  at 
knuckle-bones ;  and  the  strength  of  this  tendency  in 
him  towards  scenes  of  ordinary  life  may  perhaps 
further  be  inferred  from  the  fact  of  its  coming  up 
again  in  a  marked  manner  in  his  son  Lykios.  But 
with  all  his  revolt  from  tradition  in  the  choice  of 
subjects  and  the  freedom  he  allowed  himself  in  the 
attitudes  of  his  figures  or  groups,  Myron  was  still  true 
to  the  spirit  of  his  age. 

That  spirit  was,  as  we  have  said,  a  striving  towards 
the  reconciliation  of  inner  vitality  with  outward  form. 
And  if  Myron  pushed  it  to  an  extreme  in  one  direc- 

T  2 


276    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII, 


tion,  he  did  so  only  relatively.  He  did  not  approach 
the  realism  of  later  art.  On  the  contrary  while  search- 
ing after  truthfulness  to  nature  and  emphasizing  it, 


Pig.  92.    Marble  statue  of  an  athlete  (Diadumenos).  From 
Vaison.    Brit.  Mus. 

he  at  the  same  time  was  a  diligent  student  of  symmetry 
in  the  composition  of  his  figures,  and  even  in  respect 
of  rendering  the  hair  was  content  to  accept  the  forma] 
manner  handed  down  in  art.    From  these  facts,  which 


Fig.  93.    Caryatid  of  the  Erechtheum.  Brit. 


Mus. 


278    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  TIL 


are  duly  recorded  of  him  in  ancient  writers,  we  may 
gather  that  the  truth  he  sought  after  was  primarily 
truth  of  detail  in  the  anatomical  forms  and  next 


Fig.  94.   Bronze  leg  of  statue,  with  greave.  Magna 
Grxcia.    Brit.  Mus. 


truth  in  observing  the  nature  and  character  of  his 
subjects. 

Between  the  age  of  Pheidias,  Polycleitos  and  Myron 
on  the  one  hand  and  of  Praxiteles  on  the  other,  we 


PL.JLV11L 


Chap.  VIL] 


STATUARY. 


279 


have  no  prominent  names  of  sculptors.  But  in  such 
works  as  the  Caryatids  of  the  Erechtheum  we  have  a 
proof  that  the  noble  simplicity  of  style  which  Pheidias 
had  set  the  final  seal  to,  had  been  maintained.  Fig.  93, 
represents  the  Caryatid  now  in  the  British  Museum. 
Worthy  to  compare  with  her  in  simplicity  and  dignity 
of  style  is  the  bronze  leg  from  a  colossal  statue,  Fig.  94, 
which  was  found  in  Magna  Grraecia,  and  is  now  in  the 
British  Museum.  "  The  finish  is  that  of  a  gem  or  a 
coin,  while  the  largeness  of  treatment  is  such  that  it 
might  have  been  hewn  with  an  axe,  and  the  play  of 
the  muscles  is  as  full  of  spring  and  elasticity  as  life 
itself."  (Mr.  Poynter,  6  Hellen.  Journal,'  vii.,  Plates 
69,  69a.)  An  examination  of  the  surface  reveals  a  large 
number  of  spots  where  the  sculptor  has  removed  flaws 
from  the  bronze,  replacing  them  by  very  thin  oblong 
pieces  of  bronze,  reminding  us  of  the  careful  finishing 
of  bronze  statues  suggested  by  the  picture  on  a  Greek 
vase  in  Berlin,  where  we  see  the  sculptors  at  work. 
It  would  appear  as  if  the  ancient  sculptors  had  left 
much  more  to  be  clone  at  that  stage  than  is  the 
custom  in  modern  times. 

The  most  famous  representative  of  the  new  genera- 
tion was  Praxiteles.  The  reputation  he  enjoyed  in 
antiquity  has  been  revived  in  our  time  by  the  finding 
of  one  of  his  statues  at  Olympia,  the  marble  statue  of 
Hermes  holding  on  his  arm  the  infant  Dionysos 
(PI.  XVIII.).  There  was  need  of  some  one  to  be  kind 
to  the  infant  Dionysos.  He  had  been  born  amid  the 
lightning  which  consumed  his  mother  Semele :  she 
was  a  mortal  and  must  perish;  but  he  was  born  a 
deity  and  must  be  brought  up  to  that  function.  To 
this  end  Hermes  appeared  on  the  scene  to  carry  off  the 
infant  to  the  nymphs  who  were  to  have  charge  of  his 


280    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  TIL 


childhood.  It  is  on  this  errand  that  we  see  him  in  the 
statue.  Hermes  is  looking  down  to  the  infant  on  his 
arm  answering  its  look  of  childish  curiosity  with  a 
kindly  smile — such  a  smile  as  would  be  expected  from 
a  man  of  powerful  build,  holding  a  mere  infant  on  his 
arm.  We  know  from  a  Pompeian  painting,  and 
from  two  terra-cottas  in  the  British  Museum,  that 
Hermes  held  up  in  his  right  hand  a  bunch  of  grapes. 
His  face  is  perceptibly  broadened,  though  far  from 
the  degree  which  is  expressive  of  mirth.  The  right 
cheek  is  pushed  back  a  little,  and  the  effect  of  this 
is  increased  by  the  interruption  of  the  otherwise  long 
line  of  the  jaw  caused  by  the  lowering  of  the  head, 
which  also  in  the  circumstances  was  an  action 
produced  by  a  feeling  of  tenderness.  The  eyes  are 
turned  inwards  a  little,  as  if  looking  at  a  near  object, 
and  the  pupils,  instead  of  standing  vertically,  slope 
forward  in  the  upper  part.  Such  a  thing  may  not  be 
precisely  possible  in  nature,  but  it  was  not  uncommon 
in  Greek  sculpture,  even  before  the  time  of  Praxiteles, 
when  a  face  was  to  be  seen  from  below.  In  this 
instance  the  purpose  appears  to  have  been  to  express 
the  full  and  kindly  gaze  of  Hermes.  It  would  seem 
also  that  this  placing  of  the  eye  so  as  to  fill  up  the 
socket  more  than  usual,  and  thus  destroy  the  mass  of 
shadow  which  w  ould  otherwise  be  there,  helps  mate- 
rially to  brighten  the  face  and  add  tenderness  to  the 
expression. 

There  is  no  instance  in  older  sculpture  in  which 
character  and  moral  nature  are  expressed  to  nearly 
this  degree,  and  when  we  seek  for  the  earlier  forces 
that  may  have  contributed  to  bring  this  about,  we 
cannot  overlook  the  influence  of  Myron  in  particular 
with  his  close  observation  of  nature,  nor  the  general 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


281 


tendency  of  the  age  of  Pheidias  towards  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  inner  with  the  outer  life. 

In  regard  to  the  head  of  Hermes,  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  cranium  is  large  and  round,  and  that 
the  face  detaches  itself  from  it  in  a  measure,  wThereas 
in  older  sculptures  of  the  school  of  Polycleitos  the 
cranium  is  narrow  and  high.  Even  Pheidias,  to  judge 
by  the  Theseus,  retains  a  good  deal  of  that  manner, 
though  displaying  a  tendency  to  roundness.  It  is 
only  in  Myron  that  we  find  the  true  prototype  of  the 
head  of  Hermes,  and  that  is  in  the  copy  of  his 
Discobolus  in  the  Massimi  Palace  in  Eome.  The 
type  became  thoroughly  Athenian,  and  not  improbably 
it  was  through  Alcamenes,  a  pupil  of  Pheidias,  that  it 
was  handed  on  and  improved  in  the  interval  between 
Myron  and  Praxiteles. 

But  now,  as  to  the  bodily  forms  of  Hermes,  if  it 
were  only  a  question  of  the  largeness  of  the  mould  in 
which  they  are  cast  we  could  not  fail  to  think  of 
Pheidias  as  the  inspiring  source.  They  are  massive 
and  powerful,  if  you  come  to  examine  them.  Yet 
they  do  not  appear  as  such  unless  you  examine  them. 
That  is  to  say,  their  absolute  strength  is  not  allowed  to 
appear  on  the  surface,  as  in  the  Theseus.  It  is  toned 
down  by  a  gentle  covering  of  flesh  wherever  that  is 
possible,  and  this  gives  the  sculptor  innumerable 
opportunities  for  subtle  modulations,  on  which  the 
light  plays  very  sweetly.  No  doubt  the  youthful 
forms  of  Hermes  required  a  treatment  of  this  kind. 
Bat  as  yet  it  had  been  but  a  short  time  that  art  had 
troubled  itself  at  all  about  youthful  forms.  It  had 
been  content  with  a  Hermes  bearded  and  ripe  like 
other  men.  And  even  in  the  figure  of  the  infant 
Dionysos  in  this  group,  we  can  see  how  Praxiteles 


282    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCELEOLOGY.     [Chap.  VII. 


had  failed  to  realise  the  true  forms  and  nature  of  an 
infant. 

The  mere  conception  of  Hermes  as  a  youth  was 
obviously  a  concession  to  the  new  and  advancing  power 
of  representing  nature  in  youthful  as  well  as  mature 
forms.  Does  then  the  whole  credit  of  this  conception 
belong  to  Praxiteles  ?  We  cannot  believe  it,  if  we 
remember  for  a  moment  the  Parthenon  frieze  with  its 
magnificent  array  of  Athenian  youths  on  horseback 
and  on  foot.  Never  had  anything  of  the  kind  been 
seen  in  art  before.  The  Parthenon  frieze  was  a  glorifi- 
cation of  youth,  neither  more  nor  less,  young  men  and 
maidens  alike.  To  this  day  it  stands  unique  in  that 
respect.  We  must  then  allow  that  Pheidias  had  done 
much,  perhaps  by  far  the  most,  to  form  Praxiteles, 
marked  though  the  difference  is  between  them.  It  is 
a  difference  which  has  arisen,  as  we  have  said,  from  a 
closer  observation  of  character  in  combination  with  a 
closer  observation  of  details  of  form. 

We  are  passing  rapidly  from  point  to  point,  but  it 
is  necessary  to  notice  here  another  feature  of  Greek 
art  in  which  Pheidias  had  exercised  a  commanding 
and  enduring  influence.    We  mean  the  ennobling  of 
female  figures.    It  is  necessary  to  do  so  now  because 
Praxiteles  undoubtedly  owed  much  of  his  fame  to  his 
female  figures,  for  instance  his  Aphrodite  in  Knidos, 
from  which  it  may  be  inferred,  that  he  had  effected 
some  considerable  change  on  the  older  types  of  that 
goddess.    That  he  made  her  more  sensual  is  to  be 
admitted  from  all  that  we  know  of  the  statue  and  of 
the  tendency  of  his  age.    That  he  set  an  example 
which   later   artists   took   ready   advantage   of  to 
produce  wrorks  of  very  inferior  merit  is  also  very 
probable.    But  it  does  not  follow  that  for  the  sake  of 


Chap.  VIIJ 


STATUARY. 


283 


a  sensual  effect  he  resigned,  or,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
could  have  resigned,  the  teachings  of  a  grand  style 
which  still  in  his  day  governed  the  spirit  of  artists  to 
a  large  extent.  As  in  the  Hermes,  so  in  the  Aphrodite 
we  may  safely  assume  that  he  had  adhered  to  the 
largeness  of  form  of  older  times,  reducing  it  only  so 
far  as  w7as  necessary  to  make  room  for  character  and 
expression.  As  a  standard  of  the  largeness  of  female 
form  in  the  older  age  we  have  the  statues  of  the 
Parthenon.  Praxiteles  must  have  modified  that 
standard  considerably,  though  we  cannot  quite  tell 
how  far.  We  may  take  the  coins  of  Knidos,  on  which 
is  a  nude  figure  of  Aphrodite,  and  assume  that  this 
figure  represents  the  famous  statue  of  Praxiteles.  Or, 
again,  we  may  take  surviving  statues  of  Aphrodite  of 
this  special  Knidian  type  and  find  among  them  one  or 
two  (as  in  the  Vatican  and  in  Munich)  which  reflect 
something  of  a  grand  style.  Or  we  may  rather  look  for 
his  general  spirit  in  a  noble  statue  like  the  Venus  of 
Milo  in  the  Louvre.  But  an  actual  female  figure  from 
his  hand  which  we  can  set  beside  the  Hermes,  we 
have  not. 

An  effective  example  of  grief  is  to  be  seen  in  a 
statue  found  near  Athens  (Fig.  95),  representing  a 
female  figure  seated,  with  her  head  resting  on  her 
right  hand,  the  left  hand  lying  helplessly  on  her  lap, 
the  feet  crossed.  This  statue  has  been  assigned  to 
the  age  of  Scopas  and  Praxiteles.  But  it  must  have 
been  at  the  beginning  of  their  age  that  it  was 
sculptured,  if  not  even  a  little  farther  back  towards 
Pheidias.  The  forms  are  of  a  larger  mould  than  we 
have  been  taught  to  associate  with  Scopas  or  Praxiteles. 
There  is  a  roughness  and  want  of  finish  unusual  in 
their  time.    Nor  is  the  figure  penetrated  with  vitality, 


284    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ABCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIT. 


as   on  the  Mausoleum  frieze.    She  represents  the 


grief  of  no  individual  person,  but  a  common  grief 
which  sooner  or  later  overtakes  most  persons  of  her 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


285 


class  and  station  along  with  the  rest  of  mankind. 
She  is  thus  neither  a  portrait  nor  a  personification  of 
grief  in  general,  but  the  representation  of  grief  as  it 
affects  a  particular  class  of  womanhood  which  she  in 
her  person  places  before  us.  The  sculptor  seems  to 
have  avoided  carefully  any  very  strong  feeling  such  as 
would  have  made  us  think  of  some  individual  person 
and  her  sorrows.  He  might  for  example  have  much 
intensified  the  expression  of  grief  by  merely  placing 
her  on  a  horizontal  seat.  With  her  present  attitude 
she  would  then  have  been  bent  forward  more  than 
now  and  would  have  looked  almost  piteous  in  her 
dejection.  He  must  have  foreseen  this,  and  to  have 
foreseen  it  is  equivalent  to  the  power  of  meeting 
it.  The  face,  however,  is  sad,  contributing  with  the 
attitude  to  express  clearly  the  emotion  of  sorrow. 

Belonging  to  the  school  of  Scopas  or  of  Praxiteles 
is  the  statue  of  Demeter  from  Knidos,  PI.  XIX. 
The  type  is  that  of  a  young  mother,  a  Greek 
Madonna,  as  she  has  been  called,  whose  sorrows  and 
whose  joys  are  of  a  saintly  character.  Her  feelings  at 
the  untimely  loss  of  Persephone  are  not  allowed  to  do 
violence  to  her  personal  beauty,  and  yet  they  must  be 
expressed.  What  the  sculptor  had  to  do  was  to 
reconcile  her  physical  beauty  with  her  emotions, 
keeping  both  unimpaired.  He  had  to  find  or  create, 
a  type  of  face  which  these  emotions  would  enhance. 
The  head  is  turned  a  little  sidewards,  as  if  in  some 
uncertainty  as  to  what  direction  she  should  look  for 
the  coming  again  of  her  daughter.  The  sockets  of 
the  eyes,  though  fairly  deep,  are  relieved  of  part  of 
their  shadow,  by  the  brows  being  rounded  off  and 
not  allowed  to  impend  over  the  eyes.  Why  the  fore- 
head is  so  high  seems  to  pass  explanation.    The  eyes 


286    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


are  rounded  and  penetrating.  The  muscles  of  the 
face  work  forward  towards  the  profile,  as  in  all  cases 
of  sorrow,  the  effect  again  being  that  the  breadth  of 
the  face,  when  seen  in  front,  is  considerably  narrowed ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  expressive  part  of  the  face  is  circum- 
scribed within  the  narrowest  possible  area  and  is 
thereby  intensified.  But  the  cheeks  do  not  lose  their 
softness ;  that  result  has  been  attained  by  taking  one 
of  those  types  of  women  who  carry  much  of  the  aspect 
of  ripe  maidenhood  on  into  a  fairly  advanced  matron- 
ship,  who  in  fact  remind  us  of  Madonnas,  combining 
in  equal  measure  the  spiritual  and  the  sensual  form. 
The  mouth  of  our  Demeter,  while  it  suits  perfectly 
this  Madonna  type,  would  be  too  small  for  the  older 
ideal  order  of  Pheidias. 

According  to  the  belief  of  the  Greeks,  Demeter, 
when  not  accompanied  by  her  daughter  Persephone, 
was  divided  between  sadness  at  her  absence  and  a 
hopeful  looking  forward  to  her  return.  The  frantic 
despair  when  first  Persephone  was  carried  off,  had 
been  succeeded  by  resignation  to  the  arrangement 
made  by  higher  powers  that  Persephone  should  be 
allowed  to  return  and  live  with  her  the  half  of  each 
year,  the  joyous  half,  when  the  face  of  nature  was 
smiling.  The  other  half  of  the  year,  the  wintry  half, 
she  must  live  as  the  consort  of  the  grim  god  Hades. 
Thus  a  figure  of  Demeter,  seated  solitarily,  as  our 
statue  appears  to  have  been,  must  represent  her  in  the 
wintry  half  of  her  life,  sorrowing  for  the  absence  of 
Persephone  in  so  uncongenial  a  region,  yet  happy  in  the 
certainty  of  her  return.  These  feelings  it  is  argued 
are  expressed  in  the  face  of  our  statue. 

Great  as  were  the  service  and  fame  of  Praxiteles 
and  others  of  his  generation,  Greek  art  was  not  en- 


Chap.  VII.] 


287 


slaved  by  them.    When  they  passed  away  it  looked 
elsewhere,  not  content  to  merely  followT   out  their 
principles  and  methods.    It  was  fortunate  in  having 
many  centres  of  vitality,  in  one  or  other  of  which  it 
was  not  unlikely  that  a  man  of  independence  might 
arise.    In  this  case  the  man  who  did  arise  was  one 
whose  circumstances  of  life  had  been  such  as  to  give 
him  naturally  an  independent  turn.    That  man  was 
Lysippos.    He  had  been  brought  up  in  the  town  of 
Sikyon  to  the  trade  of  working  in  bronze.    How  he 
acquired  technical  training  in  modelling  is  not  said, 
but  it  may  be  inferred  that  he  owed  much  of  it  to  his 
own  observation,  if  we  may  judge  from  his  habit  of 
leaving  his  pupils  to  look  out  for  themselves,  telling 
them  that  it  was  better  to  do  so  than  to  copy  the 
examples  of  old  masters.     He  did  not  mean  them 
to  neglect  the   old  masters,  but  to  observe  their 
works  carefully  without  copying  them ;  and  to  observe 
nature  in  the  same  way.    Such  at  least  was  his  own 
practice. 

A  Roman  writer  of  good  authority,  Quintilian,  says 
that  Lysippos  was  one  of  the  two  Greek  sculptors  who 
approached  nearest  to  truth.  We  may  take  this 
statement  as  a  confirmation  of  his  desire  to  follow 
nature.  Another  Eoman  writer,  Pliny  ('Nat.  Hist.' 
xxxiv.  65),  tells  us  that  Lysippos  had  contributed 
much  to  the  advancement  of  the  art  of  sculpture  by 
his  manner  of  rendering  the  hair,  by  his  making  the 
heads  of  his  statues  smaller  than  had  been  the  rule 
before,  and  by  making  the  figure  itself  slimmer  and 
harder  than  his  predecessors  had  done.  In  the  com- 
position or  attitude  of  a  statue  he  cultivated  symmetry 
most  diligently,  and  replaced  the  squareness  of  older 
sculpture  by  a  distinctly  new  system  of  proportions. 


288    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY      [Chap.  VII. 


Minute  finish  clown  to  the  smallest  details  was  a 
characteristic  of  his  work. 

There  is  no  question  that  this  ancient  judgment  on 
the  style  of  Lysippos  was  in  the  main  just.  It  can  be 
tested  by  the  existing  statue  of  an  athlete  scraping 
himself  with  a  strigil,  with  which  we  are  familiar. 
There  the  head  is  obviously  smaller  than  in  older  art, 
though  no  less  clearly  it  is  a  direct  development  of 
the  manner  of  Praxiteles  as  we  see  it  in  the  Hermes. 
The  body  is  considerably  shortened  and  the  legs  pro- 
portionately lengthened.  We  can  find  no  approach 
to  this  in  Praxiteles,  and  doubtless  it  was  by  this 
reversing  of  the  proportions  of  body  and  limbs,  which 
Polycleitos  had  introduced,  that  the  works  of  Lysippos 
were  most  readily  recognised  in  his  day.  In  principle 
this  changing  of  proportions  was  no  novelty  ;  for  in 
archaic  art,  it  was  the  rule  for  men  to  have  short  bodies 
and  long  limbs.  But  in  archaic  art  the  shortness  of 
the  body  was  as  much  overdone  as  was  the  length  of 
the  limbs. 

What  Lysippos  did  was  to  revive  the  principle  and 
to  work  it  out  with  truthfulness  to  nature.  Thus  from 
the  evidence  of  two  Koman  writers  and  from  the 
characteristics  of  a  statue  of  an  athlete  known  as  the 
Apoxyomenos,  which  being  of  marble  is  assumed  to  be 
a  later  copy  of  a  statue  in  bronze  by  Lysippos,  we 
learn  that  like  Myron  he  had  sought  an  escape  in  what 
was  to  him  an  appeal  to  the  truth  of  nature.  Only  we 
must  remember  that  in  all  such  cases  the  appeal  to 
nature  was  much  controlled  and  kept  in  check.  It 
was  controlled  by  the  fact  that  the  artist  merely 
appealed  to  nature  to  escape  from  certain  traditions 
which  did  not  satisfy  him.  As  to  the  influence  of  the 
new  type  of  athletic  figure  created  by  him  we  have 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


289 


many  proofs  in  Greek  art  as  it  was  practised  in  Roman 
times.  In  particular  we  may  notice  two  bronze  statues 
found  in  Rome  (Figs.  99,  100),  the  one  representing  a 
youthful  athlete,  the  other  a  boxer  seated  and  looking 
as  the  animosa  signa  of  Lysippos  may  be  supposed  to 
have  looked. 

In  dealing  with  sculpture  in  relief  we  have  already 
noticed  certain  small  works  in  bronze  which  appeared 
to  illustrate  some  features  in  the  art  of  Lysippos 
(Fig.  79).  To  these  we  may  now  add  a  series  of  bronze 
statuettes  acquired  at  Paramythia  in  Epirus,  not  far 
from  the  site  of  Dodona.  The  first  find  occurred  in 
1792,  when  a  Greek  merchant  passing  through  Janina 
observed  a  number  of  the  bronzes  in  the  hands  of  a 
coppersmith  who  had  bought  them  for  their  value  as 
metal,  being  specially  attracted  by  the  silver  with 
which  the  eyes  are  inlaid.  The  Greek  next  sold  them 
to  the  Empress  Catherine  of  Russia,  but  she  having 
died  before  the  transaction  was  completed  and  her 
successors  refusing  to  complete  it,  the  bronzes  were 
taken  over  by  a  Russian  and  a  Pole  in  two  shares.  The 
one  share  is  understood  to  be  still  in  Russia.  The 
other  was  afterwards  acquired  by  Mr.  Payne  Knight, 
and  bequeathed  by  him  to  the  British  Museum,  with 
three  others  from  the  same  find,  which  he  had  secured 
by  other  means.  In  1796  an  English  traveller,  Mr. 
Hawkins,  visited  the  locality  of  Dodona  and  obtained 
two  more  of  these  bronzes. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  that  our  bronzes 
had  in  their  day  had  some  association  with  the  famous 
oracle,  some  of  its  odour  of  sanctity.  One  only  of  the 
figures  is  unmistakably  connected  with  Dodona.  It  is 
a  draped  female  figure  having  on  her  head  a  dove  lying 
flat  with  wings  spread.    We  are  reminded  that  the 

u 


290    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


priestesses  of  Dione,  the  goddess  of  Dodona,  were 
called  "  doves,"  as  to  which  Herodotus  gives  two  ex- 
planations. The  one,  current  at  Dodona,  was  to  the 
effect  that  two  black  doves  had  flown  away  from  Thebes 
in  Egypt,  the  one  taking  its  flight  to  Libya,  the  other 
northwards  to  Dodona,  where  it  settled  on  a  tree  and 
announced  with  a  human  voice  that  an  oracle  of  Zeus 
was  to  be  established  on  the  spot.  At  Thebes  itself 
Herodotus  was  told  that  some  Phoenicians  had  carried 
off  thence  two  priestesses,  the  one  to  Libya,  the  other 
to  Dodona,  where  they  sold  them  as  slaves. 

But  the  statuette  to  which  we  refer  particularly  as 
illustrating  the  manner  of  Lysippos  is  a  figure  of 
Poseidon  (PI.  XX.)  having  the  massive  and  powerful 
build  suitable  to  the  god  of  the  sea.  The  left  hand, 
we  may  assume,  held  out  a  dolphin  ;  the  right  would 
have  rested  on  a  trident.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Lysippos  was  said  to  have  made  the  heads  of  his 
statues  smaller  than  before  had  been  usual;  and  no 
doubt  this  was  true  of  his  typical  figures  of  athletes  ; 
but  it  would  not  apply  to  a  statue  of  Poseidon,  for 
whom  the  type  of  a  large  imposing  head  with  rough 
shaggy  hair  had  been  established  in  poetry  as  well  as 
in  art.  For  the  rest,  however,  the  statuette  is  perfectly 
true  to  the  manner  of  Lysippos,  in  the  proportions  of 
a  short  powerful  torso  with  long  legs,  in  the  love  of 
strongly  expressed  natural  forms,  whether  in  bone, 
muscle,  flesh  or  hair,  with  minute  finish  of  detail. 

It  is  consistent  with  the  reputation  of  Lysippos  for 
following  nature,  that  he  was  a  successful  portrait 
sculptor — so  successful,  it  appears,  that  Alexander 
the  Great  would  allow  no  one  else  to  sculpture  his 
portrait.  It  does  not  follow  that  Alexander  had  the 
same  strict  sense  of  truthfulness  in  portraiture  which 


ri.xx. 


Chap.  VIIJ 


STATUARY. 


291 


Cromwell  is  reported  to  have  had.  Alexander  had  his 
defects  like  Cromwell.  His  neck  was  twisted  to  one 
side.  But  while  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  with 
Cromwell's  wart  but  leave  it  out  or  put  it  in,  the 
crooked  neck  of  Alexander  could  be  made  by  a  skilful 
artist  into  a  charm,  by  simply  choosing  an  attitude  in 
which  it  would  appear  perfectly  natural.  That  is  what 
Lysippos  did.  He  chose  the  attitude  of  standing  with 
one  foot  raised,  the  body  leaning  forward  and  the  face 
turned  round  towards  the  side.  Very  probably  that 
was  a  familiar  attitude  with  Alexander  when  he  was 
not  engaged  in  battle.  At  all  events  it  disposed  of 
the  twist  of  his  neck.  A  sculptor  may  very  well  have 
chosen  this  attitude  for  this  special  purpose  and  yet 
have  for  the  rest  set  himself  severely  to  reproduce  the 
natural  aspects  of  the  face. 

There  is  no  bronze  head  of  Alexander  except  in  the 
equestrian  statuette  in  Naples,  but  there  is  in  the 
British  Museum  a  marble  head  which  is  believed 
to  be  the  best  portrait  of  him  that  exists  and  to  be 
nearer  to  the  original  of  Lysippos  than  any  other.  At 
all  events  it  is  an  admirable  example  of  Greek  por- 
traiture and  has  this  advantage  also,  that  it  was  found 
at  Alexandria,  the  town  which  the  young  conqueror  of 
the  world  founded,  and  in  which  he  was  buried.    It  is 
a  portrait  in  which  nature  has  been  followed  in  her 
essential  forms,  as  maybe  seen  in  the  rendering  of  the 
mouth,  the  eyes,  the  cheeks,  and  brow.    But  along 
with  this  striking  truthfulness  the  sculptor  has  com- 
bined at  every  point  the  touch  of  an  artist.   Because  a 
feature  was  bad  it  was  not  necessary  to  model  it  badly. 
He  has  dispensed  with  exactness  in  his  treatment  of 
the  hair  and  has  taken  a  course  between  the  actual 
aspect  of  the  hair  at  any  one  time  and  the  necessity 

u  2 


292    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 

for  a  permanent  aspect  such  as  was  required  in 
sculpture.  For  an  example  in  bronze  to  compare 
with  this  head  in  marble  we  may  take  the  head 
of  an  -^Ethiopian  in  the  British  Museum,  here  re- 
presented (Fig.  96).  It  has  the  same  strongly  marked 
individuality,  the  same  effectiveness  as  a  portrait, 


Fig.  90.    Bronze  head :  life  size.    From  Cyrene.    Brit.  Mus. 

and  the  same  attaining  of  this  effect  by  a  broad 
and  dignified  treatment.  I  believe  it  was  only  in 
this  sense  that  Lysippos  was  true  to  nature. 

It  is  usual  to  associate  with  the  school  of  Lysippos 
the  bronze  head  of  an  athlete  found  at  Olympia  some 
years  ago  and  now  pretty  widely  known  by  means  of 
casts.     These  casts  have  more  than  anything  else 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


293 


familiarised  us  with  what  Greek  sculpture  could  do  in 
the  matter  of  portraiture.  Portraits  of  Greeks  had 
been  common  enough  before  in  our  museums,  but  most 
of  them  had  passed  through  the  hands  of  copyists  in 
Eoman  times,  and  though  they  may  have  preserved 
the  actual  likenesses,  they  had  lost,  as  was  always 
suspected,  the  artistic  touch  of  the  original  sculptors. 
The  bronze  head  from  Olympia  makes  plain  what  the 
original  touch  of  a  Greek  sculptor  was  like.  It  is  the 
head  of  an  athlete  to  whom  a  portrait  statue  of  bronze 
had  been  erected  on  a  spot  which  to  an  athlete  was  the 
centre  of  the  world.  This  athlete  had  doubtless  won 
in  many  contests.  One  would  think  that  he  must  have 
been  past  the  age  of  contending  in  public  games  and 
that  his  portrait  statue  had  not  been  made  till  a  later 
period  of  life.  But  from  the  time  that  athletics  became 
a  profession  it  was  regular  enough  for  men  to  go  on 
with  it  as  long  as  they  were  fit.  So  that  there  is  every 
reason  to  suppose  that  our  athlete  had  won  a  victory 
at  the  age  at  which  he  is  represented  in  the  bronze. 
The  face  speaks  for  itself  as  to  its  perfect  truthfulness. 
It  is,  moreover,  true  to  a  comparatively  low  type  of 
mankind,  and  this  itself  presented  a  difficulty  which 
was  only  to  be  overcome  by  a  broad  treatment  of  the 
face,  side  by  side  with  the  actual  seizing  of  the 
expression. 

But  if  the  face  was  not  of  an  attractive  type  the  hair 
and  beard  were  free  from  any  such  taint.  It  is  amaz- 
ing to  see  with  what  skill  and  labour  they  have  been 
worked  out,  true  in  general  to  the  conception  of  a  thick 
shaggy  beard  and  unkempt  hair,  yet  true  also  to  the 
notions  of  bronze  sculpture  of  the  day,  those  notions 
which  prescribed  short  locks  starting  in  a  thick  mass 
and  ending  in  fine  formal  curls.    Greek  sculpture  in 


294    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


bronze  seems  never  to  have  got  rightly  beyond  that 
method.  Though  perhaps  not  the  best  that  could  be 
done,  it  was  certainly  an  advance  on  the  older 
manner  when  it  was  easy  to  reproduce  the  fashion  of 
wearing  long  hair  gathered  in  braids  twined  round  the 
head.  It  was  in  fact  a  formidable  difficulty  which  the 
change  of  fashion  to  short  loose  hair  presented  to  the 
sculptors  of  the  day,  and  possibly  they  would  have 
overcome  it  better  if,  like  the  great  Florentine 
sculptors  in  bronze,  they  had  been  untrammelled  by 
the  traditions  of  their  art.  But  the  Greeks  liked 
nothing  less  than  parting  from  their  traditions  by 
a  bold  step. 

We  may  set  beside  the  old  athlete's  head  a  bronze 
foot  also  found  at  Olympia.  At  first  sight  it  seems 
an  absolute  cast  from  nature,  so  true  is  it  in  its 
general  aspect.  It  is  the  foot  of  some  athlete,  possibly 
a  runner,  whose  statue  had  been  set  up  at  Olympia. 
But  whether  of  a  runner  or  not,  it  is  clear  that  the 
sculptor  has  gone  straight  to  nature  and  has  found 
before  him  a  not  very  high  type.  He  has  contrived 
to  be  perfectly  truthful,  and  yet  has  managed  to 
keep  in  the  background  the  fact  that  the  foot  is  of  a 
comparatively  low  type,  the  type  of  a  professional 
athlete.  He  has  succeeded,  because  he  respected  his 
art  no  less  than  he  respected  nature.  Previous  train- 
ing came  to  his  aid.  He  knew  what  an  ideally 
beautiful  foot  was  like,  and  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously that  knowledge  operated  in  the  way  of  throw- 
ing an  air  of  dignity  round  what  would  otherwise 
have  been  a  realistic  performance.  Nevertheless  it  is 
hardly  right  to  associate  this  bronze  with  the  sculptor 
Lysippos,  as  is  sometimes  done.  In  his  work,  however 
much  ancient  writers   may  have  praised  his  truth- 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


295 


fulness  to  nature,  there  must  have  been  more  of  the 
old  ideal  manner. 

We  read  of  a  sculptor,  Silanion,  of  the  school  of 
Praxiteles,  who  in  making  a  figure  of  the  dying 
Iokaste  managed  to  put  a  deadly  pallor  on  her  face 
by  mixing  his  bronze  with  silver.  How  this  was  done, 
is  not  said ;  but  it  is  conceivable  that  he  may  have 
merely  plated  the  face  with  silver  by  a  process  which 
is  to  be  seen  still  on  certain  Greek  bronzes.  Or  he 
may  have  cast  the  head  separately,  putting  a  large 
proportion  of  silver  into  the  alloy.  In  any  case  he 
was  clearly  in  search  of  an  effective  means  of  express- 
ing emotion.  We  are  told,  further,  of  this  sculptor 
Silanion,  that  he  made  a  portrait  of  a  brother  artist 
who  was  notorious  for  fastidiousness  in  reference  to 
his  own  work  and  for  the  fits  of  passion  which  this 
induced.  In  the  portrait  these  qualities  were  so 
well-seized  that  an  ancient  writer  describes  it  as  a 
bronze  figure  of  Anger,  not  of  a  man. 

Another  sculptor,  Aristonidas,  in  making  a  bronze 
statue  of  Athamas,  desired  to  represent  in  his  face  the 
sudden  revulsion  of  repentance  which  followed  on  his 
having  dashed  to  the  ground  his  infant  son  Learchos. 
To  help  out  this  expression  the  sculptor  is  said  to  have 
mixed  iron  with  his  bronze  in  such  a  manner  that  the 
rising  shame  in  the  face  was  indicated  by  the  reddish 
rust  of  the  iron  showing  through  the  glitter  of  the 
bronze.  That  again  is  a  process  which  may  be  under- 
stood in  various  ways,  if  it  is  understood  at  all.  The 
one  fact  that  is  certain  is  that  it  was  an  attempt  to 
produce  the  emotion  of  blushing. 

These  instances  will  show  that  between  the  time  of 
Praxiteles  and  the  Laocoon  group  there  had  been 
growing  up  a  desire  of  expressing  strong  emotion  in 


296    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


the  face.  We  shall  see  that  this  movement  was  accom- 
panied by  a  considerable  disregard  of  the  principle 
which  in  the  good  times  had  insisted  on  powerful 
emotions  being  confined  as  far  as  possible  to  beings  of 
a  lower  nature,  placed  in  subordinate  positions  in  the 
design. 

We  must  be  prepared  to  find  in  approaching 
the  period  of  the  Laocoon  group  not  only  strong 
emotion  in  the  faces  of  exalted  persons  such  as  deities 
and  heroes,  but  also  a  large  accession  to  our  list  of 
beings  of  a  lower  nature  to  whom  violence  of  feeling 
and  of  passion  is  appropriate.  As  examples  for  the 
moment  take  the  well-known  figure  of  the  dying 
gladiator  in  Rome,  a  Gaul  in  the  very  act  of  dying 
from  a  deep  wound  in  his  side ;  anguish  is  expressed 
in  every  feature  and  pain  in  all  his  limbs.  Or  again 
there  is  a  mine  of  sorrowful  expression  in  the 
Amendola  sarcophagus,  in  the  Capitoline  Museum, 
with  its  series  of  reliefs  representing  combats  between 
Roman  soldiers  and  Gauls.  There  you  will  find  forcibly 
rendered  among  the  Gauls,  but  only  among  them  as 
the  inferior  order,  the  pain  and  anguish  of  mortal 
wounds,  the  fury  that  accompanies  a  stroke  delivered 
in  deadly  encounter,  despair  at  the  sight  of  an  im- 
pending blow  from  which  there  is  no  escape.  Among 
the  women  of  the  Gaulish  camp  it  would  seem  as  if 
every  attitude  capable  of  expressing  dismay,  sorrow, 
or  grief  had  been  brought  into  use  by  the  sculptor 
(<Mon;  dell.  Inst.,'  i.  Pis.  30,  31). 

The  story  of  Laocoon  was  that  while  engaged  with 
his  two  sons  in  offering  a  sacrifice  by  the  seashore 
near  Troy  two  gigantic  serpents  had  suddenly 
wrapped  the  father  and  his  sons  within  their  coils. 
One  of  the  sons,  it  is  thought,  succeeded  in  escaping, 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAEY. 


297 


the  one  who  in  the  group  is  seen  pushing  a  coil  off 
from  his  foot.  It  is,  besides,  inferred  from  an  ancient 
writer  that  one  of  the  sons  did  escape  with  his  life. 
If  that  is  so,  then  there  is  some  little  comfort  to 
be  derived  from  the  marble  group.  Meantime  the 
fortunate  youth  is  in  an  agony  of  terror.  For  his  less 
fortunate  brother  there  is  plainly  no  hope.  Laocoon 
himself  still  struggles  with  such  of  his  limbs  as  are 
free,  against  his  inevitable  and  immediate  doom.  It 
was  horrible  to  perish  from  the  coils  and  fangs  of 
loathsome  serpents. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  priest  of  noble  birth  and  of  a 
tine  form,  yet  with  an  expression  on  his  face  that 
cannot  be  regarded  as  other  than  repulsive.  It  seems 
to  be  a  mistake,  this  combination  of  beauty  of  bodily 
form  with  repulsiveness  of  expression  on  the  face,  and 
we  can  see  no  explanation  of  it  except  that  the  group 
had  been  sculptured  under  the  influence  of  what  is 
called  the  Pergamon  School,  which  just  then  revelled  in 
representing  battles  of  gods  against  giants  with  legs 
formed  of  serpents,  or  battles  between  Greeks  and 
Gauls.  In  these  cases,  however,  the  exhibition  of 
strong  emotion  was  confined  for  the  most  part  to 
the  giants  and  the  Gauls,  both  of  which  were  lower 
races  of  beings,  and  as  such  could  rightly  be  made 
to  express  any  degree  of  feeling  that  was  desired, 
provided  they  were  kept  in  subordinate  positions, 
which,  unfortunately,  they  were  not.  Under  the 
influence  of  this  school  the  sculptors  of  the  Laocoon 
group  may  be  conceived  as  casting  about  for  a  subject 
nearly  akin  to  those  just  mentioned.  The  story  of 
Laocoon  would  commend  itself  the  more  readily 
that  its  natural  home  was  in  that  very  region  of  Per- 
gamon.   The  serpents  of  the  story  would  fall  in  very 


298    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


well  with  the  serpent-legged  giants  of  the  Pergamon 
sculptures.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence  also  that  the 
sculptors  of  the  group  were  a  father  and  his  two  sons. 
What  their  fate  in  life  was,  is  not  told  •  but  it  is 
certain  that  this  group  of  sculpture  from  their  hands 
has  produced  among  archaeologists  a  long  series  of 
struggles  which  may  almost  compare  in  intensity  with 
those  of  the  original. 

Let  us  notice  a  little  further  these  sculptures  of 
Pergamon.  They  are  now  in  Berlin,  where  they 
constitute  a  long  series  of  figures  in  high  relief  and 
on  a  colossal  scale  of  proportions.  They  are  much 
admired  in  Germany,  where  force  and  vigorous  action 
are  highly  appreciated.  But  admiration  of  these 
sculptures  is  not  confined  to  Germany.  They  appeal 
to  everyone  who  cares  for  a  skilful  handling  of  the 
human  form  with  a  sound  knowledge  of  it  in  detail, 
and  with  an  appreciation  of  its  beauty.  They  exhibit 
invention  also  in  abundance.  But  that  is  the  point 
where  they  seem  to  go  wrong.  The  invention  is  not 
of  a  good  kind.  For  instance,  in  one  of  the  groups 
may  be  seen  a  serpent-legged  giant  in  the  attitude  of 
encountering  the  father  of  gods  and  men,  whose  eagle 
enters  into  the  conflict,  and  seizes  the  serpent  by  its 
lower  jaw,  no  doubt  effectually.  Upon  this  it  may  be 
remarked  that  it  is  a  perfectly  true  and  just  observa- 
tion of  nature  to  make  an  eagle  attack  a  serpent. 
That  had  often  been  observed  before  by  Greek  artists. 
But  here  we  have  the  novelty  of  the  eagle,  which  was 
the  symbol  of  Zeus,  or  at  the  most  his  messenger, 
actually  rendering  him  aid  in  a  combat :  and  the 
further  novelty  of  the  serpents  which  form  the  legs  of 
the  giant,  also  entering  into  the  fray. 

Under  Fig.  97  we  give  a  marble  head  in  the  British 


Chap.  VII.]  STATUAKY. 


299 


Museum,  from  which  the  general  style  of  the  Perga- 
mene  School  may  be  easily  gathered,  with  its  love  of 
passionate  expression  pervading  every  detail.  The 
statue  of  a  boy  picking  a  thorn  from  his  foot  (Fig.  98) 
has  none  of  the  strong  passionate  impulse  which  the 


Fig.  97.    Marble  head,  so-called  Diomede.    Pergamene  style. 
Brit.  Mus. 


Pergamene  sculptors  felt.  And  yet  it  may  perhaps 
fairly  be  assigned  to  the  same  period — a  period  in 
which  close  observation,  of  nature  in  her  lower  forms 
of  life  accompanied  a  passion  for  the  ideal  forms  of 
deities.  At  all  events  the  figure  is  an  interesting 
example  of  realism  as  practised  in  the  later  ages  of 


Fig.  98.    Marble  statue  of  a  boy  picking  a  thorn  from  his  foot. 
From  Borne.    Brit.  Mus. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUATCY. 


301 


great  art — all  the  more  interesting,  because  we  have 
in  the  bronze  Spinario,  in  the  palace  of  the  Conservatory 
Borne,  the  same  subject  treated  in  an  archaic  manner, 
with  which  an  instructive  comparison  may  be  made. 

Side  by  side  with  the  desire  of  seeing  strong 
emotions  expressed  in  beings  of  a  lower  order,  there 
grew  up  also  in  later  sculpture  an  increased  love  for 
the  gentler  feelings  which  distinguish  persons  of  a 
finer  nature.  Groups  of  sweet  brotherly  affection 
such  as  existed  between  Orestes  and  Pylades ;  of 
sisterly  love,  as  between  Electra  and  Orestes ;  of 
motherly  tenderness  as  between  Merope  and  her  son, 
and  much  else  of  the  same  kind ;  these  were  the 
subjects  which  Pasiteles  and  his  followers  delighted 
in  for  three  successive  generations  ;  and  as  this  was 
the  last  phase  of  Greek  sculpture  proper,  it  is  grati- 
fying to  observe  that  in  it  the  old  rule  had  reasserted 
itself,  that  whatever  feelings  were  to  be  expressed,  a 
special  type  of  physical  beauty  must  be  found  to 
convey  them.  No  doubt,  in  this  case  the  range  of 
feelings  was  very  limited.  It  included  for  the  most 
part  only  such  as  could  be  reconciled  with,  and  were 
most  natural  to,  youthful  forms,  advancing  towards 
manhood  and  womanhood.  In  general  that  is  the  age 
of  sentiment,  and  among  persons  of  that  age  it  is  often 
difficult  to  say  whether  it  is  the  sentiment  they 
express  or  their  physical  beauty  which  ennobles  them 
the  most,  so  completely  are  these  qualities  reconciled 
in  them. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  archaic  period  in  Greece 
there  was  displayed  a  marked  tendency  towards  what 
maybe  called  a  sentimental  expression.  A  strong  stream 
of  idealism  swamped  this  tendency  and  carried  it  along 
with  such  force  that  only  now  and  then  was  it  able  to 


302    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VTT. 


show  its  head,  till  at  last,  in  the  early  part  of  the  1st  cent. 
B.C.  it  was,  so  to  speak,  rescued  by  Pasiteles.  That 
sculptor  was  a  man  of  many  accomplishments,  among 
them  being  a  close  study  of  the  old  Greek  masters  in 
his  art.  He  is  said  to  have  written  a  large  book  on 
the  subject,  and  though  that  may  not  have  been  the 
best  employment  for  a  sculptor,  yet  it  is  clear  from  his 
activity  in  other  directions  that  the  writing  of  the 
book  was  not  undertaken  to  fill  up  vacant  hours,  but 
rather  to  influence  his  contemporaries,  if  not  perhaps 
also  to  defend  the  style  which  he  had  himself  recovered 
and  reintroduced  in  a  more  amplified  form.  He  was 
praised  for  the  carefulness  and  elaborateness  of  his 
preliminary  studies,  and  for  his  modelling  directly 
from  nature.  The  sculptures  of  this  school  derive 
their  pose  and  structure  in  the  main  from  an  archaic 
Greek  type. 

But  the  sentiment  which  pervades  them,  the  sensi- 
tiveness to  skin  and  flesh,  the  delight  in  observing  the 
minuter  formations  of  bone,  as  at  the  knees  and  feet, 
the  softening  down  of  outlines  where  they  are  apt  to 
be  harsh  in  nature  and  the  general  fluidity  of  forms 
which  is  made  to  accompany  the  severe  and  almost 
rigid  structure  of  the  limbs — these  characteristics, 
though  not  altogether  at  variance  with  some  of  the 
sculpture  of  archaic  Greece,  are  yet  sufficiently  so  to 
justify  us  in  tracing  the  introduction  of  them  into 
sculpture  to  Pasiteles  and  his  school.  To  these  sculp- 
tors a  youth  just  passed  out  of  boyhood  was  not  only 
the  best  possible  model  of  sentiment,  but  he  pre- 
sented also  a  new  source  of  attraction  from  the  fact 
that  his  natural  proportions,  being  neither  those  of 
a  boy  nor  of  a  man,  being  unusual  in  art  hitherto, 
were  calculated  to  arrest  attention  at  first  sight,  and  so 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAEY. 


303 


to  make  more  easily  recognisable  such  refinements  in 
the  modelling  of  details  as  were  indulged  in.  But 
the  leading  motive  for  the  selection  of  this  youthful 
type  appears  to  have  been,  as  I  have  said,  the  fact 
that  of  all  other  human  types  it  is  the  one  which  is 
most  perfectly  reconcilable  with  the  expression  of 
sentiment  to  the  advantage  of  both.  You  may  find 
sentiment  often  enough  in  persons  of  greater  age,  but 
in  those  cases  the  true  balance  between  it  and  the 
bodily  forms  has  been  lost,  an  inclination  to  sentiment 
has  got  the  upper  hand,  and  if  such  figures  are  intro- 
duced into  art  it  must  be  at  a  loss,  from  a  Greek  point 
of  view. 

If  we  have  spoken  of  Pasiteles  and  his  school  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  suggest  that  the  first  and 
governing  impulse  with  them  was  a  study  of  a 
particular  class  of  emotions,  and  that  the  finding  of  a 
type  of  figure  most  suitable  for  the  expression  of  those 
emotions  was  a  thing  that  did  not  dawn  upon  them 
till  afterwards,  we  ought  to  correct  that  impression 
so  far  as  to  allow  that  the  school  of  Pasiteles  may 
equally  have  obtained  its  end  by  the  opposite  process 
of  starting  from  a  technical  delight  in  observing  the 
finer  details  of  the  human  figure  and  then  proceeding 
to  the  consideration  that  those  finer  details  are  best 
seen  in  figures  of  youths  in  whom  sentiment  is  at  its 
purest.  These  sculptors  would  then  be  driven,  as  a 
last  resort,  to  the  study  of  sentimental  emotion, 
though  this  may  seem  an  over-subtle  distinction  to 
draw  when  the  result  after  all  was  the  same. 

During  this  time  technical  skill,  such  as  was  to  be 
expected  when  for  several  centuries  sculpture  had  been 
one  of  the  most  active  professions  in  Greece,  abounded 
everywhere,  and  being  obliged  to  seek  out  novelties, 


304     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VII. 


found  them  most  easily  in  combinations  of  the  various 
styles  of  the  old  masters.     Now  and  then  it  struck 


Fig.  99.    Bronze  statue  of  boxer.    Found  in  Rome ;  now  in  Baths 
of  Diocletian. 


out  into  a  successful  line,  as  did  the  school  of  Pasiteles 
in  Eome.    But  on  the  whole  we  may  say  that  it  was 


Fig.  100.    Bronze  statue  of  athlete.    Found  in  Rome  ;  now  in  Baths 
of  Diocletian. 


X 


306    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.-  VII. 


the  influence  of  Lysippos,  the  last  of  the  great  masters, 
which  prevailed  the  most.  His  strong  muscular  forms 
appealed  to  the  Romans,  who  now  became  the  patrons 
of  the  Greek  artists.  We  see  the  effect  in  almost 
innumerable  instances  of  what  is  called  Graeco-Roman 
sculpture.  In  particular  we  may  take  two  bronze 
statues  which  were  found  some  years  ago  in  Rome. 
Fig.  99  represents  a  boxer  of  the  type  of  Heracles, 
seated  and  looking  round  eagerly,  as  if  ready  for  a  new 
encounter.  In  the  forms  the  observation  of  a  common 
kind  of  nature  is  true  and  well  calculated  to  appeal  to 
a  sense  of  mere  physical  combat.  But  the  execution  is 
not  true  to  any  just  perception  of  what  a  statue  should 
be  as  compared  with  a  coarse  living  being.  In  this 
respect  the  face  and  head  are  different.  The  face  is 
not  a  portrait,  but  a  type.  The  hair  is  rendered  in  an 
idealised  manner,  such  as  Lysippos  appears  to  have 
employed. 

So  again  in  Fig.  100  we  have  another  athlete,  but 
of  a  more  youthful  type,  for  which  examples  were 
doubtless  easily  obtained  from  the  works  of  Lysippos 
and  his  school.  So  much  so  that  this  statue  is 
obviously  but  a  coarse  copy  of  a  type  created  by  that 
school.  That  which  makes  it  attractive  is  only  the 
general  type  derived  from  this  source.  What  is  un- 
attractive in  it  comes  from  the  failure  either  to  copy 
exactly  or  to  add  some  new  and  fresh  observations  of 
actual  living  forms,  as  in  the  boxer. 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUAKY. 


307 


NOTE  ON  GILDING,  ETC. 

It  is  related  that  the  Emperor  Nero,  in  his  intense 
admiration  for  a  bronze  statue  of  Alexander  the  Great 
by  Lysippos,  of  which  he  had  become  possessed,  ordered 
it  to  be  gilded,  but  that  after  a  time  becoming  tired 
of  its  glittering  appearance,  he  commanded  the  gilding 
to  be  removed,  whereupon  it  was  remarked  by  Pliny 
(N.  H.,  xxxiv,  63)  that  the  statue  gained  much  in  beauty 
notwithstanding  the  scratchings  and  abrasions  which 
had  been  left  on  it  from  the  process  of  gilding.  That 
will  readily  be  believed.  But  the  point  that  interests  us 
for  the  moment  is  how  to  explain  the  ancient  process 
of  gilding  bronze.  As  to  the  wide-spread  taste  of  the 
ancients  for  gilding  on  silver,  bronze,  wood,  and  other 
materials,  we  are  left  in  no  manner  of  doubt.  As  early 
as  the  time  of  the  Odyssey  we  read  of  a  goldsmith 
gilding  the  horns  of  an  ox  that  was  to  be  sacrificed. 
Apparently  there  were  two  processes  in  use,  the  one 
consisting  of  thin  leaves  or  bractese  of  gold,  which  were 
fastened  in  their  places  by  some  sort  of  solder  or 
cement.  Among  the  disadvantages  of  this  process,  at 
least  as  regards  public  statues,  was  this,  that  thieves 
acquired  the  art  of  detaching  the  leaves  of  gold,  and 
making  off  with  them.  The  second  process  in  gilding 
on  bronze  or  silver  appears  to  have  been  to  make  first 
an  amalgam  of  gold  and  quicksilver,  and  then  to  cover 
the  object  with  this  amalgam.  The  quicksilver  would 
seize  upon  the  surface  of  the  bronze  and  carry  in  the 
gold  with  it,  thus  producing  a  gilded  covering  for  the 
whole  figure.  Assuming  that  Nero's  statue  had  been 
gilded  in  this  manner,  we  can  understand  how  the 

x  2 


303    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHJEOLOGY.    {Chap.  VII. 


removal  of  the  gilding  would  leave  the  scratches  and 
abrasions  of  which  Pliny  speaks. 

Of  gilding  on  silver  wTe  have  several  examples  where 
it  appears  that  the  process  just  described,  of  an 
amalgam  of  gold  and  quicksilver,  has  been  employed. 
The  gold  is  thicker  than  would  be  used  now.  It  is 
seen  detaching  itself  in  places  from  the  silver  in  leaves 
which  show  its  thickness.  Very  likely  there  was  not 
in  regular  practice  a  fixed  proportion  of  gold  to  quick- 
silver. On  the  other  hand  we  possess  several  Greek 
mirrors  or  mirror-cases  of  bronze,  with  designs  which 
have  been  incised  in  outline  and  then  plated  over 
with  silver.  The  silver  is  extremely  thin  and  can 
hardly  have  been  put  on  in  laminae,  as  it  undoubtedly 
was  in  later  instances.  It  seems  rather  to  have  been 
made  into  an  amalgam,  and  then,  so  to  speak,  painted 
on  to  the  bronze.  We  may  mention  here  a  large 
bronze  statuette  of  a  Eoman  Emperor,  which  was  found 
in  England,  and  is  now  in  the  British  Museum.  The 
cuirass  of  the  emperor  is  richly  decorated  with  floral 
patterns,  partly  plated  with  silver  and  partly  inlaid 
with  some  substance  like  niello.  But  we  must  not 
forget  that  this  art  of  plating  bronze  with  silver  or 
gold  is  proved  to  have  had  a  very  high  antiquity,  by 
the  bronze  dagger  found  at  My  cense  (Fig.  41),  on 
which  figures  are  inlaid  with  silver  and  gold. 

As  regards  the  process  of  enamel  on  bronze,  some 
have  argued  that  it  was  an  invention  of  the  Celts  and 
was  unknown  to  the  classical  nations  till  late  times, 
when  they  heard  of  it  from  the  Celts.  The  argument 
is  based  partly  on  the  statement  of  a  late  Greek  writer, 
Philostratos  ('  Imag.,'  i.  28),  who  speaks  of  the  bright 
colours  which  were  fused  on  to  the  bronze  trappings 
of  horses,  by  the  barbarians  living  beyond  the  Straits 


Chap.  VII.] 


STATUARY. 


309 


of  Gibraltar  (ev  'Sliceavcp),  which  would  include  the 
ancient  Britons.  There  is  also  the  fact  that  in  Gaul, 
Britain,  and  the  west  of  Europe  many  specimens  of 
bronze  fibulae,  vases,  and  other  objects,  have  been  found, 
on  which  patterns  of  very  bright  colours  have  been  made 
in  glass  paste  and  fused  on  to  the  metal.  The  designs 
are  as  rude  as  the  colours  are  bright,  and  there  is  no 
question  of  the  date  because  Boman  coins  have  been 
found  with  some  of  the  specimens.  The  process  was  to 
incise  and  groove  out  the  patterns  on  the  surface  of 
the  bronze.  Into  these  grooves,  forming  generally 
floral  or  geometric  patterns,  the  glass  was  laid  in  the 
form  of  a  paste,  and  then  fused.  The  colours  were 
mostly  red,  white,  blue,  and  green,  such  colours  in  fact 
as  were  frequent  among  the  cubes  of  glass  employed 
in  ancient  mosaic  work.  The  patterns  were  very 
limited  in  number.  We  have  the  same  design  re- 
curring over  and  over  again.  The  best  example  that 
is  known  is  a  bronze  vase  in  the  British  Museum,  which 
was  found  in  Essex,  but  was  unfortunately  much 
injured  by  a  fire  at  Easton  Hall  in  1847. 


310  HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHJEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

TEREA-COTTAS. 

"Adr]v  Upofirjdeos  ahr]V  Trrfkov. 

Greek  proverb :  see  Dio  Chrysostom,  Orat.  37. 

The  Greek  traveller  Pausanias  describes  the  district  of 
Tanagra  as  inhabited  by  potters.1  But  the  significance 
of  his  words  was  not  recognised  till  1873,  when  a  long 
line  of  tombs  was  found  there  containing  many  terra- 
cotta statuettes.  The  beauty  of  them  captivated  the 
public  taste.  A  rush  was  made  on  these  tombs,  and 
before  the  excavations  could  well  be  stopped  a  large 
number  of  the  statuettes  were  on  their  way  to  the 
Museums  of  Europe,  public  or  private.  From  that 
moment  they  have  been  a  constant  source  of  admira- 
tion ;  and  yet  they  are  no  products  of  a  high,  ambi- 
tious art.  They  represent  usually  subjects  from  daily 
occupation,  or  youthful  ideal  figures,  interesting  from 
their  costume,  and  especially  for  the  hat  they  some- 
times wear  (Fig.  101),  suggesting  the  reference  to 

1  IX.,  19,  5.  He  says  that  the  population  was  scanty,  but  that 
the  men  were  potters  (yrjs  Kepa/xei?).  But  that  what  was  only  a 
small  industry  in  the  time  of  Pausanias,  2nd  cent,  a.d.,  had 
been  extensive  in  the  older  and  better  times,  is  proved  by  the  vast 
number  of  terra-cottas  found  in  the  district.  His  statement  is 
interesting  as  a  proof  of  the  continuance  of  an  old  industry  in  a 
place  where  it  had  once  been  prosperous. 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TEEEA-COTTAS. 


311 


Sophocles  ('  (Ed.  Col.,'  314), 

irpocrcoTra  ©ecrcraXfc  viv  ainrkyei.  The  attraction  exer- 
cised by  these  figures  from  Tanagra  may  be  judged 
from  the  numbers  of 
them  that  have  been 
engraved  and  published 
in  almost  every  form, 
from  the  costly  volume 
of  coloured  designs 
issued  by  the  German 
Archaologisches  Insti- 
tute under  the  editor- 
ship of  Prof.  Kekule 
(Stuttgart,  1878),  to 
the  slight  outlines  of 
the  6  Gazette  des  beaux 
Arts '  (xi.  1875,  pp.  297 
and  551,  and  xii.  1875, 
p.  56),  and  other  publi- 
cations, such  as  Rayet's 
6  Monuments  de  1'Art 
Antique.' 

Next  in  rank  to  Tan- 
agra for  the  number  of 
interesting  terra-cottas 
which  it  has  yielded,  is 
Myrina,  in  Asia  Minor, 
where  the  French  car- 
ried on  extensive  ex- 
cavations in  1880-82. 
The  results  appear  in 

the  work  of  MM.  Pottier  and  Eeinach, 6  La  Necropole  de 
Myrina,'  1887,  with  numerous  plates,  and  containing, 
among  other  interesting  matter,  a  detailed  account 


Fig.  101.    Tanagra  statuette. 
Sabouroff  Coll.,  pi.  103. 


312   HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIII. 

of  the  processes  employed  in  producing  the  statuettes  : 
e.g.  the  quality  of  the  clay,  with  its  differences  of 
colour,  due  partly  to  differences  of  firing  and  partly 
to  materials  employed  in  the  preparation ;  the  moulds, 
of  which  a  large  number  were  obtained,  many  of  them 
bearing  the  names  of  the  artists  w7ho  made  them ;  and 
the  various  methods  of  colouring  the  statuettes.  In 
these  respects  the  Myrina  terra-cottas  do  not  differ 
from  those  of  Tanagra.  But  in  an  artistic  sense  they 
are  readily  distinguishable  by  a  degree  of  coarseness 
and  voluptuousness  which  is  wanting  at  Tanagra,  by 
a  greater  love  of  nude  forms,  and  by  a  strong  desire 
for  groups  in  which  accuracy  is  sacrificed  to  pic- 
turesque effect. 

Among  the  other  Greek  localities  which  have 
furnished  numbers  of  terra-cotta  statuettes,  bearing- 
more  or  less  the  same  stamp  as  those  of  Tanagra,  may 
be  mentioned  Naucratis  in  Egypt,  the  Cyrenaica, 
Thapsus,  Sicily,  and  Magna  Grsecia.  We  mention 
these  localities  in  particular,  because  the  terra-cottas 
from  them  have  in  each  case  certain  peculiarities  of 
treatment  which  seem  to  indicate  local  production,  or, 
if  not  a  peculiar  treatment,  at  least  a  noticeable 
variety  in  the  clay  of  which  they  are  made.  For 
instance  the  terra-cottas  from  Cyrene  include  as  a  sort 
of  speciality,  a  type  of  female  figure  having  a  modius 
on  her  head  and  an  extraordinary  ornament  stretched 
across  and  covering  her  breast.  The  modius  on  the 
head  was  a  symbol  of  the  goddess  Demeter,  and 
possibly  the  curious  breastplate  was  a  suggestion 
of  the  fertility  of  the  earth,  comparable  in  a  measure 
to  the  many  breasts  of  the  Ephesian  Diana.  These 
terra-cottas  from  Cyrene  are  as  a  rule  of  a  poor  work- 
manship. 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERR  A-COTTA  S. 


313 


At  present  it  is  difficult  to  say  from  what  source 
the  coroplastse,  whether  at  Myrina,  Tanagra;  or  else- 
where, derived  their  inspiration.  It  is  clear  that 
they  obtained  the  name  of  coroplastsG  or  makers  of 


Fig.  102.    Tanagra  statuette.    Sa-        Fig.  103.  Tanagra  statuette, 
bouroff  Coll.,  pi.  108.  Sabouroff  Coll.,  pi.  113. 


youthful  female  figures,  from  the  prevalence  of  such 
figures  among  their  works.1    That  is  attested  amply 

1  Lucian,  '  Prometh.,'  2.  The  Athenians  called  any  worker  in 
clay  a  4  Prometheus : '  rovs  xVTP*as  KCli  Ittvowolovs  kcl\  iravras  octol 
7TT]\ovpyol  IlpofxrjOeas  cnreKakovvro.    Sophocles,  in  a  fragment  that 


314   HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


by  the  vast  numbers  of  female  figures  that  have 
survived.  But  what  was  the  motive  in  so  consistent 
a  choice  of  these  draped  youthful  female  figures? 
One  obvious  answer  is  this,  that  a  figure  draped  to 
the  feet  provided  at  once  a  broad  base  on  which  it 
could  stand  without  the  danger  of  being  broken,  which 
a  nude  figure  resting  only  on  its  feet  was  always  liable 
to  (Fig.  102).  That  this  was  one  of  the  motives  in 
question  is  further  apparent  from  the  fact  that  when 
male  figures,  as  of  boys,  are  represented,  they  are 
usually  made  to  sit  on  a  rock,  so  as  to  secure  a  broad 
and  firm  base.  Sitting  or  standing,  the  great  majority 
of  the  figures  are  young  women  (corae)  and  the  makers 
of  them  are  rightly  enough  called  coroplastse.  And  it 
is  a  fair  argument,  that  just  as  the  place  of  girls  was 
home,  so  also  the  destination  of  these  figures  was  to 
be  ornaments  of  the  house  and  home.  It  is  true  that 
they  are  mostly  found  in  tombs,  but  that  does  not 
imply  that  they  were  made  specially  for  tombs  any 
more  than  that  the  deceased  persons  beside  whom  they 
were  laid  were  made  specially  for  the  tomb.  That 
was  a  necessity,  not  a  choice.  Had  the  terra-cottas 
been  made  for  tombs,  like  the  Athenian  painted 
lekythi,  they  would  have  represented  appropriate 
subjects,  which  would  have  placed  their  purpose  and 
origin  beyond  dispute.  It  is  not  denied  that  some  of 
them  were  made  with  this  purpose.  It  would  be 
strange  in  so  wide  a  series  of  figures  if  it  were  not 


has  survived  from  his  'Pandora '  (Nauck,  '  Trag.  Gr.  Frag.,'  p.  188), 
says  Kai  npcoTov  ap%ov  7rr]\6v  opya&iv  xepolv.  The  word  opyd^tv 
is  explained  by  Pollux  (vii.,  165)  as  equivalent  to  the  older 
expression  vypaiveiv,  to  moisten  the  clay  and  work  it  through 
the  ringers. 


Chap.  VIII.]  TEEKA-COTTAS.  315 


so.  But  the  vast  majority  point  to  domestic  or- 
nament.1 

In  this  connection  another  question  arises.  Is  it 
not  equally  true  that  the  vast  majority  of  bronze 
statuettes  were  made  for  domestic  ornament  ?  And 
is  it  not  the  case  that  these  bronze  statuettes  present 
us  with  the  greatest  possible  variety  of  subject? 
They  are  endless  in  their  subjects.  There  is  no  uni- 
formity among  them,  as  among  the  terra-cottas.  Gods 
and  goddesses  are  even  more  numerous  than  figures 
from  daily  life.  These  bronzes  stood  as  ornaments  on 
the  tops  of  candelabra,  were  affixed  to  vases,  formed 
stands  of  mirrors,  and  possibly  also  were  often  kept  apart 
in  small  shrines,  such  as  the  sacrarium  represented  at 
Pompeii,  serving  in  fact  as  household  gods.  If 
temples  like  that  of  Diana  at  Ephesus  contained,  as 
we  know,  large  numbers  of  silver  images  which  were 
brought  out  on  festal  days,  it  is  conceivable  that  in 
dwelling-houses  also  something  of  the  kind,  but  on  a 
small  scale,  found  a  place.  Unfortunately  no  ancient 
Greek  dwelling-house  has  survived.  In  the  main  we 
have  to  fall  back  on  Pompeii,  which  after  all  was  a 

1  M.  Heuzey,  in  the  6  Comptes-rendus '  of  the  '  Academie  des 
Inscriptions,'  1882,  p.  388  fol.,  would  allow  this  of  the  Tanagra 
statuettes  and  their  like,  but  he  argues  that  the  original  idea  had 
been  to  introduce  into  Greek  funeral  customs  the  customs  of  Egypt, 
in  placing  images  in  the  tombs  with  a  definite  religious  import. 
He  seeks  to  prove  this  by  tracing  certain  types  which  are  common 
in  Greek  tombs,  as  a  female  figure  holding  a  flower  to  her  breast, 
figures  of  nurses,  of  Sirens  and  Harpies,  to  Egyptian  originals.  In 
his  view  the  Greek  female  figure  holding  a  flower  to  her  breast  is  a 
modification  of  the  Egyptian  figure  holding  her  hand  to  her  breast ; 
the  figures  of  nurses  are  Greek  varieties  of  Isis  holding  Horus  on 
her  knees.  Sirens  and  Harpies  are  adaptations  of  the  bird  which  in 
Egypt  symbolized  the  breath  of  life,  or  of  the  winged  disk  of 
the  sun, 


316   HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ABCHiEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


Greek  town,  and  to  argue  back  from  it  with  such 
references  as  may  be  gathered  from  Greek  literature. 
There  is  one  reference  which  may  be  of  some  use. 
Plato  ('  Conviv.,'  39,  40,  44)  makes  Alcibiades  describe 
the  personal  appearance  of  Socrates,  by  comparing 
him  to  one  of  those  figures  of  Silenos  which  were  to  be 
seen  in  the  workshops  of  the  sculptors  of  Hermse.  At 
first  sight,  he  says,  one  sees  a  figure  of  Silenos  playing 
on  the  syrinx  or  the  flute,  but  when  you  open  the  figure 
you  find  within  it  the  figure  of  a  god.  We  have  thus 
the  fact  that  figures  of  Silenos  were  frequently  made 
so  as  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  cupboard  in  which  a  figure 
of  a  nobler  being,  a  deity,  was  placed  and  preserved. 
Hermse,  or  Terms,  as  they  are  more  frequently  called, 
were  made  in  the  shape  of  square  pillars  surmounted 
by  a  head  or  bust.  The  pillar  itself  was,  according 
to  Plato,  hollow  and  in  the  nature  of  a  cupboard — 
most  probably  it  was  of  wood.  Figures  of  Hermse 
representing  Dionysos  or  Silenos  are  frequent  on  the 
painted  Greek  vases,  and  if  we  could  believe  that  they 
always  contained  within  them  some  nobler  deity,  that 
fact  would  relieve  us  of  many  thoughts  adverse  to  the 
Greeks.  But  for  our  present  purpose  it  is  enough 
that  these  Terms  prove  the  habit  of  keeping  images 
of  deities  enclosed  in  a  sort  of  cupboard.  Beyond  this 
we  know  of  no  fact  which  proves  the  existence  in  Greece 
of  the  habit  existing  in  Pompeii,  of  having  a  sort  of 
shrine  in  which  household  gods  were  kept.  But  this 
one  fact,  in  the  utter  absence  of  the  remains  of  ancient 
dwellings  in  Greece,  may  be  worth  consideration. 

Admitting  that  statuettes,  whether  of  bronze  or  of 
terra-cotta,  may  have  frequently  been  kept  in  dwelling- 
houses  as  images  for  religious  purposes,  we  have  still 
to  remember  that  the  vast  majority  of  those  that  have 


Chaf.  VIIL]  terra-cottas.  317 


been  found  in  tombs  have  no  religious  character. 
These  at  least  must  have  served  as  mere  domestic 
ornaments  so  far  as  we  can  see ;  and  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  they  had  come  chief!  y  from  the  women's 
quarters  in  ancient  houses.  That  would  be  the 
natural  inference,  from  the  prevalence  of  female 
figures,  youths,  and  children  among  the  terra-cottas, 
combined  with  the  fact  that  on  occasions  of  death  and 
burial  the  women  were  in  general  the  most  affected. 
Witness  the  deathbed  and  funeral  scenes  figured  on 
the  attic  lekythi.  On  a  vase  representing  the  death 
of  Archemoros1  are  two  persons  carrying  on  their 
heads  a  number  of  vases  placed  on  small  tables,  these 
vases  being  intended  for  a  sacrifice,  after  which  they 
might  be,  and  very  often  were,  placed  in  the  tomb.  No 
one  would  care  to  use  again  vases  which  had  served  in 
so  melancholy  a  ceremony.  Similarly  we  may  suppose 
that  figures  of  terra-cotta  which  had  originally  served 
as  domestic  ornaments,  were  employed  on  occasions  of 
death  to  adorn  the  chamber  of  the  deceased  and  there- 
after to  be  placed  in  the  grave,  packed  together  not 
infrequently  in  large  earthenware  jars.  What  we  are 
certain  of  is  that  they  were  found  in  tombs,  and  that 
they  have  no  relation  to  the  tombs  in  the  subjects 
they  represent. 

It  is  clear  that  figures  of  deities  were  used  for 
domestic  worship,  as  in  the  case  of  a  small  clay  figure 
of  Hephaestos  mentioned  by  the  Scholiast  of  Aristo- 
phanes ('  Aves,'  436)  as  seated  at  the  hearth  in  the 
character  of  Ephoros  of  the  fire.  Among  other  deities 
Aphrodite,  Artemis,  Eros,  and  Hermes  may  be  said  to 
have  been  fairly  identified.  Scenes  from  daily  oc- 
cupations are  frequent ;  so  also  are  dolls  and  play- 
1  Gerhard,  6  Ges.  Abhandlungen,'  PI.  1. 


318   HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.   [Chap,  VIII. 


things,  more  or  less  comic,  such  as  the  graves  round 
Corinth  still  yield  in  numbers. 

Except  the  earliest  examples,  which  are  rudely 
modelled  with  the  hand,  these  statuettes  are  made 
from  clay  moulds,  many  specimens  of  which  still  exist 
(Fig.  104  shows  the  mould  on  the  right  and  the  cast 
from  it  on  the  left).  More  correctly,  only  the  front  of 
the  figure  is  made  from  the  mould,  the  back  of  it 
being  as  a  rule  merely  a  plain  piece  of  clay  formed  by 


Eig.  104.    Terra-cotta  mould  of  statuette.    Tarentum.    Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  9J  in. 

the  hand.  Or  when  the  design  is  carried  round  the 
back,  as  in  forming  the  head  for  example,  it  appears 
to  have  been  usually  executed  by  the  hand.  Even  in 
the  beautiful  group  of  AstragalizusaB  in  the  British 
Museum,  the  back  of  which,  contrary  to  what  is 
customary  in  terra-cottas,  is  not  without  considerable 
attractions,  the  modelling  seems  to  have  been  com- 
pleted in  this  manner.  It  was  necessary  that  there 
should  be  no  undercutting  in  the  mould,  which  would 
obstruct  the  removing  of  the  figure  from  it.    Or  if 


Chap.  VIIL]  TERRA-COTTAS.  319 


any  injury  were  done  in  the  removing,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  restore  it  afterwards  with  the  hand,  just 
as  it  was  necessary  to  carry  out  afterwards  in  this  way 
whatever  part  of  the  design  could  not  be  expressed  in 
the  mould.  The  scope  thus  allowed  for  variety  in 
the  finishing  of  the  figures  enabled  the  coroplastse  to 
give  a  different  appearance  to  figures  from  the  same 
mould,  in  which  also  he  was  greatly  aided  by  freedom 
in  the  use  of  bright  colours.1  For  example,  there  are 
in  the  British  Museum  two  masks  from  Camiros  in 
Rhodes,  the  faces  of  which  have  been  made  from  the 
same  mould  (similar  to  Fig.  105).  Yet,  beyond  the  face 
and  in  the  colouring,  there  are  considerable  differences. 
To  produce  a  mould  the  first  step  was  to  model  the 
desired  figure  in  clay  or  in  wax ;  if  the  former  material, 
a  core  of  wood  was  used,  which  was  called  Kavafios 
(Pollux,  6  Onom.,'  vii.  164,  and  x.  189) ;  if  in  wax,  the 
model  was  next  covered  with  clay  and  subjected  to  fire, 
upon  which  the  wax  melted  away,  leaving  its  impression 
on  the  clay  covering,  which  then  became  a  mould.2  This 
clay  covering  is  called  rjfjbiXiySos  in  Pollux  ('  Onom.,'  x. 
190),  and  from  his  description  it  would  appear  that 
the  clay  was  pierced  with  a  number  of  small  holes  for 
the  escape  of  the  vapours  rising  from  the  melting  wax, 
whence  the  ^/uTw/ySo?  was  compared  to  a  shield  pierced 
by  many  darts.  Of  late  years  Tarentum  has  yielded 
a  considerable  number  of  moulds  for  the  making  of 
terra-cotta  statuettes.  Most  of  them  are  of  a  com- 
paratively late  period,  from  the  3rd  to  the  1st  cent.  B.C., 

1  Toav  de  KopoirkdScov  'ibiov  to  to.  xo\o(3a<fir)  ficnvTeiv,  Pollux, 
'  Onom.,'  vii.  163. 

2  Dio  Chrysostom,  Orat.  lx.  25,  says :  kcu  yap  eWyot  (KoporrXaSoc) 

TVTTOV  TLVCL    TrapeftOVTCS    OTToioV    CLV    TTrjkbv    €L$    TOVTOV    € p,ftdXX(0(riV 

ojxoiov  tco  Tvnco  to  cidos  aTroTikovai. 


320    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


and  it  is  curious  to  find  among  those  of  them  in  the 
British  Museum  an  instance  of  a  mould  which  has 
been  expressly  made  to  imitate  an  archaic  phase  of 
art  (Fig.  104).  It  represents  a  draped  female  figure,  and 
at  first  sight  has  the  appearance  of  belonging  to  Greek 


Fig.  105.    Terra -cotta  bust.    From  Greece.  Heuzey, 
PL  19,  Fig.  1. 


art  of  the  end  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C.  But  in  fact  it  is 
not  uncommon  to  find  among  terra-cottas  of  a  distinctly 
late  period  others  which  in  general  would  be  taken  to 
be  archaic.  In  some  cases  the  old  moulds  may  have 
been  handed  on  from  age  to  age ;  but  mostly  it  was 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


321 


the  taste  for  a  particular  archaic  type  of  figure  that 
had  survived  or  been  revived,  new  moulds  being  made 
to  imitate  the  archaic  type. 

In  most  cases  the  colours  are  simply  painted  on  the 
terra-cotta  and  easily  destroyed,  yet  instances  are  not 
uncommon  in  which  the  whole  figure  is  covered  with 
a  glaze  which  gives  it  the  appearance  of  an  enamelled 
surface.  A  series  of  statuettes  in  the  British  Museum 
found  at  Oentorbi  (Centuripse),  in  Sicily,  have  the 
surface  enamelled  with  a  pink  or  livid  colour,  these 
colours  being  most  conspicuous  on  the  nude  forms. 
On  the  draperies  an  enamelled  surface  was  of  less  effect 
and  was  more  seldom  employed.  In  the  best  period  of 
this  glazed  ware  the  colour  is  a  uniform  white.  Some- 
what later  we  find  white,  brown,  and  green,  as  in  the 
unique  vase  from  Tanagra,  in  the  British  Museum,  in 
the  form  of  a  goose,  on  which  rides  Eros.  Apparently 
this  is  a  revival  of  a  process  which  may  be  seen  in 
certain  archaic  vases  from  Camiros,  either  made  or 
influenced  by  Phoenician  processes.  In  late  Greek 
and  Boman  times  there  is  the  green  glazed  ware. 

It  has  been  thought  strange  that  so  prolific  a  pro- 
fession as  that  of  the  coroplastse  should  not  have  re- 
produced some  of  the  celebrated  statues  of  the  Greek 
masters  ;  and  in  one  case  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
prove  that  the  not  uncommon  group  of  one  female 
figure  carrying  another  on  her  back  (similar  to  Fig. 
106)  is  a  copy  from  a  group  of  Demeter  carrying  Perse- 
phone, by  Praxiteles,  known  generally  as  the  Catagusa. 
But  in  the  first  place  there  are  doubts  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  Kardjovaa  in  this  instance,  a  German  archaeolo- 
gist having  interpreted  it  as  "  spinning  "  (Loeschke, 
6  Arch.  Zeitung,'  1880,  p.  102).  While  there  is  no 
good  reason  for  this  interpretation,  the  fact  remains 

Y 


322    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHJEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


that  there  is  no  authority  for  assuming  Praxiteles  to 
have  represented  Demeter  and  Persephone  in  this 
attitude,  even  if  he  did  represent  the  one  carrying  or 
conducting  the  other.  It  is  the  attitude  of  play,  and 
of  a  momentary  or  at  least  very  short  act,  and  may 
rather  be  classed  with  the  numerous  scenes  from  daily 
life.  These  groups  are  published,  and  the  theory  of  a 
Praxitelean  origin  of  them  strongly  advocated,  by 
M.  Kayet,  in  his  6  Monuments 
de  l'Art  Antique.'  So  also  in 
Fig.  114  we  may  trace  a  famous 
statue  by  Calamis.  But  probably 
there  is  not  among  terra-cottas 
any  specimens  so  obviously  copied 
from  a  statue  as  the  figure  of  a 
Diadumenos  (athlete  binding  a 
diadem  round  his  head),  which 
was  found  near  Smyrna  some 
years  ago  and  now  belongs  to 
Mr.  Blacker  in  London.  It  will 
be  found  published  in  the  6  Hel- 
lenic Journal/  1885,  PI.  61. 

So  far  our  observations  and 
remarks  have  been  confined  for 
the  most  part  to  terra-cottas  of  the  Tanagra  class. 
We  may  be  said  to  have  begun  at  the  end  of 
our  subject;  for  undoubtedly  these  terra-cottas 
belong  to  a  late  phase  of  Greek  art.  Some  ex- 
planation is  therefore  necessary,  to  justify  this 
departure  from  the  ordinary  rule  of  tracing  a  branch 
of  art  from  its  origin  to  its  close.  In  the  first 
place  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  Tanagra  statuettes 
have  proved  so  attractive  is  precisely  the  unexpected- 
ness with  which  they  come  before  us.    No  study  of 


Fig.  106.    Group  from 
Centorbi,  in  Sicily. 
Brit.  Mus. 
Ht.  1  ft.  1  in. 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TEKRA-COTTAS. 


323 


other  remains  of  Greek  art  or  of  older  terra-cottas 
adequately  prepares  us  for  them.  They  appear  as 
something  quite  new.  A  sketch  of  the  previous 
history  of  working  in  terra-cotta  would  no  doubt 
prepare  us  for  the  technical  skill  of  modelling, 
finishing,  and  colouring.  From  that  point  of  view 
there  would  be  nothing  in  the  Tanagra  statuettes  to 
surprise  us.  It  is  the  artistic  conception  which  is  so 
novel  and  so  fascinating.  The  all-important  question 
is,  under  what  influences  did  this  order  of  artistic 
conceptions  arise  ?  In  every  artistic  movement,  every 
new  phase  of  art,  there  are  influences  outside  of  art 
proper  that  have  to  be  taken  into  account,  and  in  this 
case  we  have  to  take  into  consideration  the  powerful 
impetus  that  was  likely  to  have  been  derived  from  the 
contemporary  literature,  in  particular  from  the  poetry 
of  the  Hellenistic  age,  the  poetry  of  Theocritos, 
Moschos,  and  Bion.  To  this  period  therefore  the  terra- 
cottas of  Tanagra  and  their  kindred  are  assigned.  In 
comparatively  modern  phases  of  art  there  have  been 
periods  of  productivity  in  which  the  results,  attractive 
and  beautiful  in  themselves,  owe  their  principal  charm 
to  the  manner  in  which  they  reflect  the  peculiar  litera- 
ture and  cultivation  of  their  time.  So  it  was  with 
the  terra-cottas  of  the  Hellenistic  age.  In  form  they 
are  the  offspring  of  art  ;  it  is  poetic  literature  that 
has  breathed  into  them  their  spirit.  Like  groups  of 
Dresden  or  Chelsea  ware  they  are  more  interesting 
as  illustrations  of  the  prevailing  tastes  of  their  day, 
than  as  products  of  strictly  artistic  development. 

To  this  same  Hellenistic  age  belong  also  the  terra- 
cotta panels  which  had  served  as  decorations  in 
ancient  houses.  These  panels,  with  the  reliefs  on 
them,  had  been  made  from  moulds  and  were  attached 

y  2 


321  HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 

to  the  walls  by  pins,  the  holes  for  which  are  generally 
visible.  How  far  they  may  have  been  grouped 
together  in  continuous  friezes  or  whether  they  were 
not  rather,  in  most  cases,  isolated  from  each  other,  it 
is  difficult  to  say.  Each  panel  has  a  subject  complete 
in  itself,  and  this  would  favour  the  view  that  they 
were  separated  on  the  walls  by  some  architectural 
division.  It  is  true  that  these  terra-cottas  have  been 
obtained  almost  all  from  Roman  or  Grseco-Eoman 
sites.  But  they  represent  a  phase  of  art  which  had 
arisen  in  Greece  during  the  Hellenistic  age  and  under 
the  influence  of  literature,  in  which  one  of  the  striking 
features  was  the  attempt  to  combine  idealism  with 
realism.  As  in  that  literature,  so  in  the  terra-cotta 
panels  we  have  the  ideal  forms  of  Satyrs,  Bacchantes, 
Centaurs,  Cupids,  more  or  less  in  the  forms  in  which 
the  art  of  the  4th  cent.  B.C.  had  left  them.  But  here, 
as  we  have  already  pointed  out  (p.  236),  they  are 
employed  in  scenes  characteristic  of  daily  life,  as,  for 
example,  Satyrs  filling  a  basket  of  grapes  or  standing 
on  tiptoe  to  drink  from  the  lip  of  a  large  vase  brimful 
of  wine  (Fig.  81).  It  was  forgotten  that  these  forms 
had  been  originally  created  as  ideals  founded  on  the 
observation  of  nature. 

Another  favourite  subject  was  that  of  Victory 
sacrificing  an  ox,  much  in  the  manner  of  the  bronze 
relief  which  we  have  given  under  Fig.  76.  But 
whereas  in  the  bronze  the  Victory  is  closely  draped, 
and  thus  follows  the  better  model  of  the  Victories  on 
the  balustrade  of  the  temple  of  Athene  Nike  at 
Athens,  on  the  terra-cotta  panels  they  display  the 
upper  part  of  the  figure  and  thus  introduce  a 
conception  of  Victory  which  was  foreign  to  the  tastes 
of  the  best  time.    The  same  conception  is  frequent  on 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


325 


ancient  gems,  or  rather  pastes,  which  there  is  every 
reason  to  assign  to  the  Hellenistic  age.  Undoubtedly 
the  figures  of  Victory  both  on  the  terra-cotta  panels 
and  on  the  pastes  are  of  a  noble  type.  Yet  when 
compared  with  the  bronze  relief  (Fig.  76)  they  seem 
more  the  result  of  acquired  taste  than  of  inspiration. 
The  groups  retain  much  of  the  old  idealism.  When 
they  abandon  it  it  is  mostly  for  the  sake  of  imparting 
some  touch  of  realism  where  nothing  of  the  kind  was 
wanted.  It  has  been  said  of  the  statuettes  of  Tanagra, 
that  "  standing  midway  between  the  ideal  and  the  real, 
they  owe  much  of  their  charm  to  this  indefiniteness ;  "  1 
and  this  is  almost  equally  true  of  the  reliefs  on  panels. 

The  terra-cotta  panels  in  the  British  Museum  have  been 
published  by  the  Trustees  in  a  work  entitled  c  Ancient 
Terra-cottas  in  the  British  Museum/  London,  1810.  Cam- 
pana  published  his  fairly  extensive  series  in  his  6  Antiche 
Opere  in  Plastica,'  Eome,  1852.  Compare  the  work  now 
in  progress  by  Theodor  Schreiber,  4  Die  Hellenistischen 
Relief  bilder ; '  and  see  H.  von  Rohden,  6  Die  Terracotten 
von  Pompeii,'  1880,  being  Vol.  I.  of  the  6  Antike  Terra- 
cotten,' edited  by  Prof.  Kekule. 

The  process  of  going  backward,  usually  so  difficult, 
is  in  the  present  instance  relieved  by  the  circumstance 
that  terra-cottas  of  the  class  described  up  to  now  are 
separated  from  their  predecessors  by  a  period  of 
several  centuries,  during  which,  to  judge  by  the 
specimens  in  our  museums,  very  little  of  importance 
was  produced.  It  may  be  that  our  museums  are 
imperfect  in  this  respect,  and  that  any  day  a  new 
series  of  excavations  may  supply  what  now  appears  to 
be  missing.     But  the  fact  is  that,  except  for  a  few 

1  M.  Heuzey  in  his  article  on  the  origin  of  the  terra-cottas  in  the 
*  Comptes-rendus  '  of  the  Academie  des  Inscriptions,  1882,  p.  388. 


326   HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


isolated  examples,  there  is  a  wide  gap  between  the 
terra-cottas  of  the  Hellenistic  age  which  we  have  been 
considering,  and  any  older  stage  of  the  art  that  can 
be  mentioned  as  being  fairly  represented  in  existing 
remains.  Take,  as  an  instance,  the  work  by  Prof. 
Kekule  on  the  6  Terra-cottas  of  Sicily : ' 1  Plates  15-53 
are  devoted  to  later  terra-cottas  more  or  less  of  the 


Fig.  107.  Terra-cotta  head.  Fig.  108.  Terra-cotta  head.  Sicily. 
Sicily.    Kekule,  PI.  8,  Fig.  3.  Kekule,  PI.  12,  Fig.  3. 


Hellenistic  age.  Plates  8-14  give  us  heads  of 
statuettes  which  may  fairly  be  assigned  to  the  great 
period  of  Greek  art  between  the  time  of  Pheidias  and 
Alexander  the  Great  (Figs.  107,  108).  Plates  1-7 
carry  us  back  to  the  archaic  date  of  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 

1  6  Die  Terracotten  von  Sicilien,'  being  Vol.  II.  of  the  work 
edited  by  him,  f  Die  Antiken  Terracotten.' 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


327 


Similarly  if  we  take  such  a  collection  as  that  of  the 
British  Museum,  we  shall  find  an  even  greater  absence 
of  terra-cottas  belonging  to  the  great  period  of  art 
under  Pheidias  and  his  fol- 
lowers, while  on  the  other 
hand  the  archaic  terra-cottas 
are  much  more  strongly  repre- 
sented than  in  Sicily.  It  is 
conceivable  that  during  the 
great  period  of  sculpture  and 
painting  the  coroplastee  were 
unable  to  rise  to  the  occasion. 
It  is  possible  also  that  circum- 
stances which  we  know  nothing 
of  may  have  tended  to  the 
destruction  and  loss  of  a  great 
part  of  the  terra-cottas  pro- 
duced in  that  period.  But 
whatever  the  explanation,  we 
must  for  the  present  be  guided 
by  the  fact  that  there  is  on  the 
whole  a  wide  gap  between  the 
terra-cottas  of  the  Tanagra  and 
the  archaic  periods.  We  are 
therefore  free  to  go  back  at 
once  to  the  archaic  terra- 
cottas. 

In  Greece  the  oldest  appli- 
cation of  terra-cotta  seems  to 

have  consisted  in  the  making  of  figures  perhaps  a 
little  ruder,  but  still  of  the  same  kind  as  the  accom- 
panying Fig.  109,  in  which  painted  patterns  are 
combined  with  a  plastic  rendering  of  the  head ;  next 
followed  decorations  for  the  roofs  and  cornices  of 


Fig.  109.    Very  archaic 
image  or  xoanon.  From 
Thisbe.    Heuzey,  PL  17, 
Fig.  3. 


328   HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIII. 


temples.  According  to  tradition  it  was  a  Corinthian 
potter,  Butades,  who  first  made  terra-cotta  masks  for 
the  fronts  of  roof-tiles  (antefixse),  that  is  for  the  cornices 
of  temples.1  His  date  has  not  been  ascertained ;  his 
personality  has  been  rendered  slightly  legendary ;  but 
the  tradition  embodies  a  fact  otherwise  known,  viz., 
the  importance  of  Corinth  in  early  times — let  us  say 
the  8th  cent.  B.C. — as  a  centre  of  activity  in  the  pro- 
duction of  works  in  terra-cotta,  having  a  powerful 
influence  in  Greece  on  the  one  hand  and  in  Etruria 
on  the  other.  This  employment  of  terra-cotta  was  in 
time  superseded  by  the  use  of  marble  for  roof-tiles  in 
temples,  which  is  said  to  have  been  first  introduced  in 
Greece  by  Euergos  of  Naxos,  whom  Pausanias  (v.  10,  3) 
confounds  with  his  son  Byzes.  This  occurred  during 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.  in  the  reign  of  Alyattes,  king  of 
Lydia.  But  either  owing  to  the  cost  of  the  new 
material,  or  for  other  reasons,  terra-cotta  continued  to 
be  employed  in  smaller  public  buildings,  if  not  in  the 
erection  of  new  temples  on  a  large  scale.  A  very  care- 
ful inquiry  on  this  subject  with  plates  displaying  the 
original  colours  and  patterns  of  archaic  terra-cotta 
cornices  is  to  be  found  in  a  memoir  by  Doerpfeld  and 
others,  'Die  Verwendung  von  Terrakotten.'  The 
designs  of  these  cornices  were  made  from  moulds 
(two*,),  and  one  mould  of  a  Gorgon's  head,  for  example, 
would  be  sufficient  for  a  whole  cornice.  Uni- 
formity of  effect  as  regards  artistic  type  was  reduced 
by  brightness  of  colouring.  The  Gorgon's  head  is 
frequently  represented  on  these  antefixee,  doubtless 
in  recognition  of  its  property  as  a  prophylactic  or 

1  Pliny,  N.  H.,  xxxv.  152:  "Butadis  inventum  est  rubricam 
addere  aut  ex  rubra  creta  fingere,  primusque  personas  tegularum 
extremis  imbricibus  imposuit.'' 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


329 


deterrent.  Next  to  it  in  frequency  is  a  female  head 
or  bust  to  the  front,  but  whether  this  head  appeared 
to  the  ancients  as  that  of  a  goddess,  or  as  simply  an 
ideal  female  head,  we  cannot  say.  In  the  interesting 
series  of  these  terra-cottas  which  the  British  Museum 
obtained  from  Capua  is  to  be  noticed  a  figure  of 
Typhon  painted  in  bright  colours  of  red,  black,  and 
white,  recalling  the  Typhon  in  one  of  the  archaic 
pediments  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens.  In  the  same 
series  is  also  an  interesting  group  of  Artemis  holding 
a  lion  at  each  side,  '  Artemis  Persike.' 

The  prevalence  of  female  heads  among  the  archaic 
antefixae  that  have  survived,  is  not  precisely  what  we 
would  expect  after  reading  in  Pliny  (N.  H.,  xxxv.  151— 
152)  that  Butades  the  potter,  who  first  made  '  faces ' 
(personae)  for  the  fronts  of  roof-tiles  had  been  led  to 
this  choice  of  design  by  having  seen  the  outline 
which  his  daughter  had  sketched  on  the  wall  from 
the  shadow  cast  on  it  by  her  lover's  face,  in  lamp- 
light. Butades  filled  in  the  face  with  clay,  and  fired 
it  with  other  specimens  of  his  work  as  a  potter.  The 
portrait  was  preserved  in  the  Nymphaeum  at  Corinth 
till  Mummius  sacked  the  town.  From  such  a  begin- 
ning it  would  be  expected  that  faces  of  young  men 
would  occur  frequently  among  the  archaic  antefixae. 
Such  is  not  the  case.  Most  of  them  are  faces  of  young 
women,  or  Gorgons.  At  all  events  it  is  an  interesting 
fact,  that  in  those  early  times,  the  daughter  of  a  potter 
had  artistic  training,  enough  to  trace  the  shadow  of 
her  lover's  face.  Then  as  regards  the  bright  colour- 
ing which  pervades  the  archaic  antefixae,  we  are  told 
by  Pliny  (xxxv.  154),  that  the  two  most  famous  plastae 
in  Italy,  Damophilos  and  Grorgasos,  were  at  the  same 
time  painters.    It  was  they  who  decorated  the  temple 


o30   HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIII. 

of  Ceres,  in  Borne,  inscribing  their  designs  with  Greek 
verses,  which  told  that  the  designs  on  the  right  hand 
were  by  Damophilos,  those  on  the  left  by  Gorgasos. 
The  same  distribution  of  labour  between  two  painters, 
Cimon  and  Dionysios,  occurs  in  a  Greek  epigram,1 
from  which  it  may  be  inferred  that  this  arrangement, 
so  natural  in  itself,  had  struck  the  ancients  as  peculiar. 
Again,  it  is  said  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  Greek  painters, 
Zeuxis,  that  he  also  made  figures  or  designs  in  terra- 
cotta.2 

In  Etruria,  and  among  the  early  Eomans,  the  ap- 
plication of  terra- cotta  to  architecture,  which  in 
Greece  had  been  partially  driven  out  of  the  field  by 
the  introduction  of  marble,  found  a  firmer  foothold, 
possibly  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  marble.  We  have 
the  direct  statement  of  Pliny  (xxxv.  157)  to  this  effect 
("  elaboratam  hanc  artem  Italia3  et  maxime  Etrurise  "). 
Of  terra-cotta  was  the  statue  of  Jupiter  in  his 
temple  on  the  Capitol,  which  Tarquinius  Priscus 
(or  perhaps  Superbus)  had  commissioned  the  artist 
Turrianus  to  make.  On  festivals  the  face  of  this 
statue  was  painted  with  minium.  On  the  apex  of 
the  front  pediment  of  the  temple  stood  a  terra- 
cotta quadriga,  which  Tarquin  had  removed  forcibly 
from  Veii,  where  it  had  been  held  sacred  and  in- 
violable from  a  circumstance  attending  the  making  of 
it,  which  Plutarch  relates.3 

1  Anthol.  Palat.  ix.  758 : 

K//xo)i>  €ypa(f)€  tt)V  dvpav  rrjv  bt^iav. 
TT)V  5'  c^iovtcdv  detjiav  Alovvctlos. 

2  Pliny,  JST.  H.,  xxxv.  66  :  "Fecit  et  figlina  opera  quae  sola  in 
Ambracia  relic ta  sunt  cum  inde  Musas  Fulvius  Nobilior  Eomam 
transferred" 

3  Plutarch,  <  Public.'  13.  Pliny,  N.  H.,  xxxv.  157,  speaks  of 
more  than  one  quadriga:  "  Fictiles  in  fast  igiotempli  ejus  quadrigas." 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TEKKA-COTTAS. 


331 


When  put  into  the  kiln  to  be  baked,  the  quadriga, 

instead  of  shrinking  in  size,  as  usual,  from  the  drying- 

up  of  the  moisture  in  the  clay,  expanded  so  much 

that  the  roof  and  sides  of  the  kiln  had  to  be  removed 

to  get  it  out.    As  regards  this  technical  effect,  it  may 

be  remarked  that  the  Assyrian  tablets  with  cuneiform 

inscriptions  frequently  have  a  number  of  small  holes 

punctured  in  the  clay  to  allow  the  escape  of  moisture 

during  the  process  of  baking.    In  a  work  of  art, 

however,  especially  a  large  group  modelled  in  the 

round,  the  only  safeguard  against  its  being  destroyed 

by  the  shrinking  of  the  clay  in  the  kiln  lay  in  its 

being  hollow  and  thin,  so  that  whatever  moisture  was 

in  the  clay  might  readily  escape.    How  difficult  a  task 

it  was  to  obtain  success  under  such  circumstances 

may  be  seen  in  the  large  sarcophagus  from  Caere 

(Cervetri)  in  the  British  Museum.1    In  this  case  the 

clay  seems  to  have  been  largely  mixed  with  pounded 

brick,  and  to  have  acquired  thereby  great  tenacity. 

But  notwithstanding  this  precaution,  and  the  fact  that 

the  two  figures  reclining  on  the  lid  of  the  sarcophagus 

are  hollow  even  to  the  toes,  it  will  be  seen  in  several 

places,  as  in  the  right  foot  of  the  male  figure,  that  the 

shrinkage  has  seriously  damaged  the  artistic  effect. 

In  a  large  group,  like  this  which  might  in  the  baking 

suffer  entirely  unforeseen  changes,  it  was  necessary  to 

model  in  a  bold  and  somewhat  rough  manner,  so  as 

to  preserve  the  general  effect,  come  what  might.  But 

this  was  a  style  of  art  that  suited  the  Etruscan,  if, 

indeed,  it  was  not  developed  in  him  by  his  traditions 

of  working  in  terra-cotta.   The  date  of  the  sarcophagus 

in  question  can  hardly  be  later  than  B.C.  550,  and  it 

1  Engraved  in  Dennis's  6  Cities  and  Cemeteries  of  Etruria/  2nd 
ed.,  i.  p.  227;  6  Encycl.  Britann.,'  9th  ed.,  s.  v.  Ktruria,  PI.  8. 


332   HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIII. 


may  thus  perhaps  fairly  be  taken  as  an  illustration  of 
the  style  of  art  presented  by  those  statues  in  terra- 
cotta, which  Pliny  says  (xxxv.  157)  the  early  Komans 
were  not  ashamed  to  worship.  Oato  complained  that 
these  old-fashioned  terra-cotta  decorations  of  temples 
were  despised  in  his  time.  We  suppose  that  he  refers 
to  those  executed  in  the  archaic  Etruscan  manner 
which  prevailed  in  Eome  before  the  time  of  Damophilos 
and  Gorgasos,  who,  with  their  Greek  verses,  as  already 
mentioned,  doubtless  introduced  also  a  new  and  fresh 
Greek  style.1  When  Vitruvius 2  and  Cicero  3  speak  of 
the  terra-cotxa  sculptures  in  the  pediments  of  temples, 
they  state,  or  imply,  that  those  figures  were  of  the 
old  Etruscan  type.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the 
Etruscans  had  obtained  this  art,  or  at  least,  a  strong 
impetus  to  the  practice  of  it,  from  the  artists  (jictores) 
Eucheir,  Eugrammos,  and  Diopos,  who,  to  escape  the 
tyranny  of  Kypselos,  in  Corinth,  accompanied  Dema- 
ratos,  the  father  of  Tarquin,  to  Etruria  (Brunn, £  Griech. 
Kunstler,'  i.  p.  529).  It  is  known  that  Corinth  was 
one  of  the  earliest  seats  of  the  fictile  art  in  Greece, 
and,  considering  the  inexhaustible  quantities  of  very 
fine  clay  lying  close  at  hand,  it  is  not  strange  that 
this  art  had  flourished  there.  It  was  at  Corinth  that 
the  idea  of  a  pediment  for  a  temple,  doubtless  filled 
with  figures  in  terra-cotta,  was  invented  (Pindar, 
'  Olymp.,'  xiii.  21)  ;  and  it  was  Butades  of  Corinth, 

1  Livy,  xxxiv.  4,  4.  Pliny,  N.  H.,  xxxv.  154,  speaking  of 
the  temple  of  Ceres  in  Kome,  which  had  been  decorated  by  these 
two  artists,  says:  "Ante  hanc  asdem  Tuscanica  omnia  in  asdibus 
fuisse  auctor  est  Varro." 

2  iii.  3,  5,  "  Ornantque  signis  fictilibus  aut  asreis  inauratis  earum 
fastigia  Tuscanico  more." 

3  '  De  Divinat.,'  i.  10, 16,  "  Cum  Summanus  in  fastigio  Jovis  qui 
turn  erat  fictilis  a  caalo  ictus  esset." 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


333 


who,  as  has  already  been  said,  was  believed  to  have 
been  the  first  to  introduce  into  the  architectural 
decoration  of  temples  those  antefixal  ornaments.  And 
these  traditions  and  beliefs  are  on  the  whole  confirmed 
by  a  comparison  of  the  archaic  terra-cottas  of  the 
architectural  class,  found  at  Olympia  on  the  one 
hand,  and  in  Etruria  on  the  other.  From  that 
early  impulse  in  Etruria,  the  art  ^-^^ 
spread  downwards  into  Italy,  to  M^iS 


Pompeii  (H.  von  Rohden,  '  Die 
Terracotten   von   Pompeii,'    1880),  or   the  statue. 
Pig.  110. 

"While  surpassing  the  Greeks  in  the  production  of 
large  groups  in  terra-cotta,  the  Etruscans  failed  in 
their  statuettes.  We  may  take  as  examples  two,  now 
in  the  British  Museum,  that  were  found  in  the  Polle- 
drara  tomb  near  Vulci,  with  objects  reaching  back  to 


meet  a  similar  impulse  spreading 
northward  from  Tarentum  and 
Sicily,  which  impulse  also  had 
originated  in  Greece.  So  that 
when  the  later  movement,  under 
Damophilos  and  Gorgasos  reached 
Eome,  it  was  but  a  new  phase  of 
an  art  which  had  started  from 
Greece,  but  which  had  become 
stereotyped  under  Etruscan  prac- 
tice. It  would  thus  the  more 
easily  make  its  way  in  Italy.  To 
illustrate  the  continued  use  of 
terra-cotta  reliefs  in  architec- 
ture, down  to  the  end  of  the 
Roman  Republic,  we  may  cite 
the  cornices  and  friezes  found  at 


Fig.  110.  Terra-cotta 
from  Pompeii. 


334   HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIII. 


before  B.C.  600.  These  terra-cottas  (one  of  which  is 
engraved  in  Micali, '  Monumenti  Inediti,'  PI.  4,  Fig.  5), 
though  rude  in  design,  are  of  a  fine  clay,  and  represent 
a  combination  of  colour  and  gilding  from  which  it 
could  be  supposed  that  in  the  phrase  of  Vitruvius — 
"  signis  fictilibus  aut  sereis  inauratis" —  this  last  word 
may  have  applied  to  the  terra-cottas  (fictilibus)  as 
well  as  to  the  bronzes  (sereis).  Again,  in  two  larger 
statuettes  from  Caere,  also  in  the  British  Museum,  may 
be  seen  the  same  archaic  type  of  a  female  figure  seated 
with  hands  on  knees,  and  showing  the  same  incapacity 
of  detaching  any  limb  from  the  mass  of  the  figure. 
The  clay  is  coarser,  and  the  red  colour  applied  to  the 
drapery  is  bright. 

Terra-cotta  figures  combined  with  vases  are  of  pretty 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  black  ware  of  Chiusi 
(Clusium),  and,  like  this  ware  itself,  they  appear  to  be 
imitated  from  designs  in  bronze  or  other  metal.  It  is 
reasonable  to  conclude  so  from  the  fact  that  the  details 
on  the  surface  of  them  are  marked  by  hatched  lines, 
as  in  metal- working.  The  modelling  is  always  rude, 
and  a  considerable  antiquity  may  be  claimed  for  these 
terra-cottas  ;  no  less  than  for  a  small,  but  more  freely- 
modelled  vase,  in  the  form  of  a  lion,  from  Veii,  and 
inscribed  in  Etruscan  characters,  Felthur  Hathisnas, 
now  in  the  British  Museum  (Fabretti,  C.I.I.  No. 
2561). 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  this  Chiusi  ware  that  the  vases 
are  frequently  enriched  with  a  long  uniform  border  or 
frieze,  generally  consisting  of  a  design — for  example, 
a  combat  of  warriors,  or,  group  of  animals — several 
times  repeated.  The  breadth  of  the  frieze,  and  the 
amount  of  relief  in  which  the  figures  are  represented, 
answer  exactly  to  the  average  of  Assyrian  cylinders, 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TEKKA-COTTAS. 


335 


as  indeed,  also  the  general  character  of  the  designs. 
It  is,  evident  that  these  designs  have  been  executed 
by  rolling  a  cylinder  on  the  moist  clay  of  the  vase ; 
and  it  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  this  practice  was 
introduced  into  pottery  from  the  common  usage  of  the 
Assyrians  and  Babylonians  in  regard  to  seals  in  the 
form  of  cylinders.  Such  usage  may  be  supposed  to 
have  been  conveyed  to  the  Etruscans,  as  also  to  the 
early  Greeks,  by  Phoenician  traders,  whose  imports 
are  not  unfrequently  found  in  early  Etruscan  tombs. 

Etruscan  urns  of  terra-cotta  are  for  the  most  part 
of  a  late  date,  and  deal  with  popular  Greek  myths  and 
legends,  or  parting  scenes,  according  to  designs  evi- 
dently invented  by  Greek  artists.  The  numerous 
portraits  in  this  material  are  also,  as  a  rule,  late.  But 
though  very  deficient  in  execution,  they  are  mostly 
marked  by  great  force  in  the  conception,  and  the 
broad  lines  by  which  it  is  conveyed. 

In  Greece  itself,  there  has  been  no  notable  find, 
except  at  Olympia,  of  archaic  terra-cottas  applied  to 
architecture.  Those  of  Olympia  may  be  described  as 
refined  sisters  of  the  terra-cotta  antefixae,  with  their 
female  or  Gorgons'  heads,  which  have  already  been 
spoken  of  as  coming  from  Capua  and  Etruria.  The 
general  aspect  and  style  are  the  same.  But  there  is 
a  passage  in  Pausanias  (i.  3.  1)  which  would  prove  that 
in  Greece,  the  art  had  been  more  ambitious  than  its 
present  scanty  remains  suggest.  In  speaking  of  the 
Stoa  Basileios,  which  stood  in  the  Ceramicos  (the 
potters'  quarter)  in  Athens,  he  says  that  on  the  roof 
were  terra-cotta  figures  (dyaX/jcara  oirrrj^  7^9)  repre- 
senting Theseus  throwing  Skiron  into  the  sea,  and 
Hemera  carrying  off  Kephalos.  The  subjects  here 
mentioned  are  of  a  class  that  points  to  an  archaic  age, 


336   HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


and  in  fact  this  porch  is  mentioned  in  Aristotle's  '  Con- 
stitution of  Athens  '  (c.  vii.)  as  existing  in  the  time  of 
Draco.  In  the  British  Museum  may  be  seen  an  archaic 
relief  of  Hemera  carrying  off  Kephalos,  which  was 
found  at  Camiros,  in  Ehodes.  In  the  Berlin  Museum 
is  a  larger  terra-cotta  of  the  same  subject,  and  equally 
archaic,  that  is  to  say,  belonging  to  the  6th  cent.  B.C. 
('  Arch.  Zeit.,'  1875,  PI.  15,  Fig.  1).  Again,  the  deeds 
of  Theseus  were  favourite  subjects  in  the  archaic  age, 
culminating  on  the  painted  vases  in  what  is  called  the 
early  red  figure  style,  which  belongs  to  the  first  half 
of  the  5th  cent.  B.C.  As  Pausanias  mentions  only 
these  two  subjects  on  the  Stoa  Basileios,  and  as  a  porch 
would  require  a  number  of  decorative  designs,  it  is  to 
be  supposed  that  these  two  subjects  were  repeated  from 
the  same  moulds  at  intervals  along  the  roof  of  the 
porch.  It  is  true  that  the  words  of  Pausanias  have 
been  taken  literally,  in  the  belief,  that  there  had  been 
only  two  sculptures  on  the  wrhole  porch,1  and  that 
they  had  been  placed  on  the  tops  of  the  supposed 
pediments.  On  that  view  the  sculptures  must  have 
been  much  larger  than  we  have  any  evidence  of  in 
Greece,  while  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  two  subjects  in 
question  were  repeated,  as  was  usual  on  Greek  public 
buildings,  it  wras  natural  for  Pausanias  to  mention 
them  without  any  further  explanation. 

The  relief  just  mentioned  as  coming  from  Camiros, 
is  one  of  a  series  of  archaic  reliefs  which  have  been 
found  there,  and  at  Athens,2  Melos,  and  elsewhere. 
As  a  rule,  they  are  delicate  and  refined  in  the  model- 

1  E.  Curtius,  'Arch.  Zeit.,'  1875,  p.  166,  whom  Miss  Harrison 
follows  in  her  '  Myths  and  Mon.  of  Ancient  Athens,'  p.  24,  giving, 
however,  a  wrong  illustration. 

2  Schoene,  '  Griech.  Beliefs,'  Pis.  30-35, 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


337 


ling.  Indeed,  if  we  take,  as  convenient  for  refer- 
ence, two  of  those  from  Melos  in  the  British  Museum, 
which  represent,  the  one  Bellerophon  slaying  the 
Chimaera  (Fig.  Ill),  the  other  Perseus  slaying  the 
Gorgon  (Fig.  112),  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive 
how  they  could  be  surpassed  in  the  perfection  of 
refinement  with  which  they  are  modelled.    In  others, 


Fig.  111.    Bellerophon  slaying  the  Chimaera. 
Ht.  6J  in. 


where  the  original  colouring  has  survived,  it  also  is 
noticeable  for  its  delicacy.  But  these  reliefs  are  not 
strictly  architectural.  They  are  too  small  for  a  build- 
ing. The  lowness  and  delicacy  of  the  relief  would 
vanish  in  the  open  air.  And  yet  they  have  been  made 
for  attachment  to  some  surface,  and  for  decorative 
effect  on  a  space  of  small  dimensions.  Not  only  the 
fine  artistic  quality  which  they  possess,  but  also  the 

z 


338   HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


variety  of  subject  which  they  represent,  tell  at  once 
that  they  were  made  to  be  admired  and  examined 
closely.1  The  student  of  archaic  Greek  reliefs  in  terra- 
cotta, cannot  do  better  than  see  and  think  over  them 
closely,  keeping  in  view  the  task  which  the  artist  had 
to  accomplish,  viz.,  the  reconciling  of  truth  to  human 
and  animal  forms,  with  the  necessities  of  material  and 
decorative  effect,  on  a  surface  of  small,  almost  minute 
dimensions.  At  every  moment  the  actual  forms  of 
nature,  whether  in  man,  horse,  or  chimsera,  have  to  be 

modified  under  the 
exigencies  of  a  design 
in  relief  which  must 
be  kept  low  and  flat, 
if  it  is  to  suit  its 
decorative  purpose. 

From  the  tombs  of 
Camiros  several  ex- 
cellent examples  of 
this  class  of  terra-cotta 
reliefs  have  been  ob- 

Fig.  112.    Perseus  slaying  the         tained.       But  these 

Gorgon.  tombs  have  also  yielded 

Ht.  6J  m.  J 

a  series  of  terra-cotta 

masks,  the  exact  purpose  of  which  is  not  obvious. 

These   masks   represent    invariably    the   head  or 

bust  of  a  female  figure,  the  type  being  always  the 

same,  a  placid  ideal  face  such  as  the  Greeks  of  the 

5th  cent.  B.C.,  or  nearly  so,  conceived  to  be  the  best 

1  This  series  of  reliefs  is  discussed  in  a  very  interesting  and 
instructive  manner  by  Brurm,  in  his  Memoir  '  iiber  tektonischen 
Styl,'  in  the  'Berichte  der  Bayer.  Akad.,'  1883,  p.  300.  The  two 
from  Melos  here  referred  to  as  in  the  British  Museum  were 
engraved  in  Millingen,  '  Anc.  Uned.  Mon.,'  ii.  P]s.  2-3. 


Chap.  VIII.]  TERRA-COTTAS.  339 


expression  of  female  beauty.  Yet  there  is  a  sombre 
aspect  in  the  faces.  Moreover  where  the  mask 
extends  down  to  the  bust  (Fig.  105)  we  see  at  times 
that  the  hands  are  raised  to  the  breasts,  and  this 
action  was  undoubtedly  of  sepulchral  import.  We 
may  therefore  assume  that  these  masks  were  made 
specially  for  tombs.  They  are  often  pierced  at  the 
top  with  small  holes  intended  for  hanging  them  up 
on  a  wall — apparently  the  wall  of  the  tomb.  The 
uniformity  in  the  type  of  face  and  the  resemblance 
between  it  and  the  female  faces  on  the  terra-cotta 
cornices  of  archaic  temples,  would  suggest  that  these 
masks  had  been  placed  on  the  inner  walls  of  tombs 
to  give  the  tomb  something  of  the  aspect  of  a  temple, 
reminding  us  of  the  stelae  or  tombstones  of  the  Greeks, 
which  constantly  suggest  by  their  form  the  appearance 
of  a  small  temple. 

But  while  this  explanation  of  the  origin  of  these 
masks  is  not  in  itself  unreasonable,  we  have  to  bear  in 
mind  also  that  the  early  Greeks  may  have  acquired 
from  the  Phoenicians  the  habit  of  regarding  the 
human  face  and  bust — apart  from  the  rest  of  the  body 
— as  suitable  for  artistic  purposes.  The  idea  does  not 
seem  peculiarly  Greek  in  its  conception,  notwith- 
standing the  story  of  Butades  and  his  daughter. 
What  we  may  fairly  state  is  this :  in  the  archaic 
tombs  of  Camiros  and  elsewhere  have  been  found  a 
series  of  small  vases — not  unlike  spindles  in  shape — 
which  finish  at  the  top  in  the  bust  of  a  female  figure 
holding  a  dove  to  her  breast.  She  wears  a  head-dress 
or  veil  which  falls  in  the  Egyptian  manner  with 
square  ends  over  each  shoulder,  and  a  necklace  with  a 
pendant  which  resembles  the  necklaces  on  the  native 
Phoenician  terra-cottas  found  in  Cyprus.    The  mouth 

z  2 


340    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  VIII. 


its  rounded, 


of  the  vase  rises  above  her  head.  This  figure  has 
been  identified  as  the  Phoenician  goddess  Astarte,  and 
of  this  at  least  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  type 
of  her  face  is  peculiarly  Oriental]  and  sensual  in 
full,  form.  Possibly  enough  some  of 
these  vases  now  surviving  from 
Greek  tombs  had  been  made  by 
Greek  potters  in  direct  imitation 
of  Phoenician  originals,  though  the 
likelihood  is  all  the  other  way,  the 
more  so  since  vases  of  this  kind 
would  have  been  frequently  im- 
ported along  with  the  perfumed 
liquids  which  they  were  made  to 
contain  and  which  the  Phoenicians 
supplied.  But  there  are  other  ex- 
amples which  exhibit  what  may  be 
called  the  first  step  of  the  Greeks 
in  Hellenizing  this  type  (Fig.  113). 
The  whole  vase  is  made  into  a 
draped  female  figure,  narrowing 
towards  the  feet  and  not  displaying 
much  shape  or  form,  except  in  the 
head  and  bust.  The  type  of  face 
has  been  changed  from  the  rounded 
sensuous  type  of  Astarte  nearly  to 
the  Greek  form  of  a  long  face  with 
massive  brow  and  jaw,  and  with  flat 
not  rounded  cheeks.  Thus  if  we 
are  right  in  calling  this  a  first  step  of  the  Greeks  in 
Hellenizing  a  Phoenician  idea,  we  learn  from  it  two 
things :  first  that  the  Greeks  were  acquainted  with 
the  Phoenician  employment  of  heads  and  busts,  and 
secondly,  that  they  did  not  altogether  like  it.  They 


Fig.  113.  Vase  in 
form  of  Astarte  (?). 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERRA-COTTAS. 


341 


did  not  of  course  always  act  as  in  this  instance.  On 
the  contrary,  these  same  archaic  tombs  have  yielded  a 
number  of  vases  in  the  form  of  birds  with  female 
heads,  which  it  is  usual  to  call  Sirens.  Or  again,  we 
find  small  vases  in  the  shape  of  a  head  of  Heracles, 
covered,  all  but  the  face,  with  the  lion's  skin.  Such 
heads  of  Heracles  are  not  unfamiliar  among  the  small 
porcelain  vases  which  are  attributed  to  the  Phoenicians. 
It  is  therefore  possible  that  the 
archaic  female  masks  found  in 
Greek  tombs  had  their  origin  in 
Phoenician  art,  and  may  have  been 
directly  suggested  by  the  lids  of 
Phoenician  sarcophagi,  which  are 
fashioned  into  human  faces  at 
the  upper  end,  under  which  lies 
the  face  of  the  person  buried 
within. 

From  the  vase  in  the  form  of 
a  female  figure  just  described  the 
next  step  appears  to  have  been 
to  discard  the  idea  of  a  vase, 
and  to  retain  only  the  figure. 
The  old  fashion  of  holding  one 
hand  to  the  breast  was  retained,  the  other  hand 
held  the  skirt  aside  in  the  manner  so  frequent  in 
archaic  sculpture.  The  figures  are  stately  in  aspect, 
young  and  tall.  They  have  no  special  symbol 
that  would  identify  them  as  goddesses.  They 
suggest  solemnity,  and  seem  as  if  they  might 
have  been  made  expressly  for  a  funeral  ceremony. 
In  contrast  with  them  is  a  series  of  seated  female 
figures,  representing  persons  of  greater  age.  The 
oldest  examples  sit  solemnly,  with  a  hand  on  each 


Fig.  114.  Hermes  Crio- 
phoros.  Gela.  Brit. 
Mus.    Ht.  %  in. 


342   HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AECHiEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


knee.  At  a  later  period  some  of  them  have  symbols 
which  appear  to  indicate  a  goddess.  One  in  the 
British  Museum  holds  a  lion  on  her  lap,  and 
may  therefore  be  Cybele.  Another  also  in  the 
Museum  carries  a  fawn  at  her  breast,  and  holds 
out  in  her  right  hand  a  patera,  as  if  in  some 
way  associated  with  a  sacrifice ;  others  carry  a  pig, 
doubtless  again  for  sacrifice.  As  an  example  of 
a  male  figure  belonging  to  this  archaic  age  we 
may  take  Fig.  114,  which  it  is  not  unreasonable  to 
suppose  is  a  rude  copy  from  the  famous  statue  of 
Hermes  carrying  a  ram,  made  by  Calamis  for  the 
town  of  Tanagra. 

Terra- cottas  in  the  shape  of  apes  or  negroes,  though 
made  by  Greek  potters  and  found  in  Greek  tombs, 
must  originally  have  been  inspired  in  Egypt.  To  all 
appearance  they  had  been  first  made  by  foreigners 
living  in  Egypt.  The  question  is  whether  these 
foreigners  were  Phoenicians  or  Greeks,  or  partly  the 
one  and  partly  the  other.  The  Greeks  who  traded  and 
travelled  in  Egypt  in  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  possibly 
some  time  before  then,  were  likely  to  have  picked  up 
new  artistic  ideas  there.  The  figures  of  apes  and 
negroes  may  very  well  be  set  down  to  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  vases  in  the  shape  of  a  grotesque  Silenos, 
kneeling  with  his  hands  on  his  knees,  in  a  true 
Egyptian  manner,  such  as  occur  in  the  tombs  of 
Camiros,  seem  to  retain  in  their  grossness  a  proof 
of  their  having  been  originally  the  production  of 
Phoenicians  living  or  travelling  in  Egypt.  They 
have  an  artistic  affinity  to  the  grotesque  Pataikoi 
which  Herodotus  describes  in  Phoenician  art.  In 
this  way  Egypt  had  influenced  Greece  through  two 
channels  flowing  contemporarily  for  the  most  part. 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TERKA-COTTAS. 


343 


Nor  is  it  impossible  that,  as  M.  Heuzey1  has  argued, 
the  primary  idea  of  placing  terra-cotta  statuettes  in 
the  tombs  was  derived  by  the  Greeks  from  the 
Egyptian  usage  of  depositing  porcelain  images  beside 
their  dead.  The  feeling  of  solemnity  which  pervades 
many  of  the  archaic  female  figures  would  argue  a 
continuance  of  some  such  spirit  among  the  people. 
But  clearly  that  could  only  have  been  partial  at  the 
most,  because  side  by  side  with  these  serious  and 
solemn  statuettes  we  find  numbers  of  purely  grotesque 
figures  fashioned  and  intended  to  create  amusement 
as  household  ornaments. 

Cyprus  and  Sardinia  were  seats  of  Phoenician 
industry.  They  have  both  yielded  numbers  of  terra- 
cottas illustrating  the  tastes  of  that  people.  The 
most  characteristic  type  is  a  nude  female  figure 
holding  up  her  breasts  with  both  hands,  the  type  of 
face  being  of  the  sensual  order  already  referred  to. 
But  Cyprus  has  furnished  also  many  draped  female 
figures.  In  them  the  oriental  love  of  ornament,  rich 
necklaces,  elaborate  crowns  and  brightly  coloured 
dress  is  the  most  conspicuous  feature.  Even  the 
terra-cottas  of  Greek  production  in  Cyprus  and  of 
the  best  period,  retain  in  many  cases  these  large  and 
highly  ornate  crowns. 

The  archaic  period  which  we  have  thus  endeavoured 
to  sketch  extended  from  about  B.C.  650-500.  Earlier 
than  that  there  was  doubtless  an  elementary  stage  of 
making  figures  or  reliefs  in  terra-cotta.  We  have,  for 
instance,  the  very  primitive  idols  found  at  Mycenae, 

1  In  his  6  Figurines  Antiques  du  Louvre,'  he  hints  at  the 
possibility  of  the  terra-cottas  having  been  originally  expiatory, 
replacing  the  human  victims  which  of  old  had  been  sacrificed  at 
funeral  ceremonies. 


344  HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKOH^SOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 


Ialysos  in  Bhodes,  and  on  other  sites  of  early  civili- 
zation in  Greece.    But  apparently  the  formative  spirit 
had  not  awakened  to  an  extent  that  calls  for  notice  now. 
It  may  be  more  profitable  to  return  for  a  moment  to 
where  we  set  out — that  is  to  the  beautiful  terra-cottas 
of  the  Tanagra  period — for  the  sake  of  recalling  what 
they  possess  in  common  with  the  archaic  terra-cottas 
and  what  divergent  from  them.    We  do  not  include 
as  divergencies  those  differences  of  artistic  style 
which  were  inevitable   in  the  development  of  art. 
We  refer  rather  to  the  changes  of  subjects  which  the 
general  taste  and  education  of  a  new  time  were  likely  to 
bring   about.    In   this   respect   there   is   much  in 
common.    There  is,  above  all,  the  prevalence  of  female 
figures  representing  the  ideal  of  youthful  beauty  and 
grace  peculiar  to  each  period.    And  next  there  is  the 
excessive  love  of  grotesque  figures  and  children's  toys. 
Among  the  divergencies  is  this,  that  the  seated  and 
more^aged  figures  of  the  archaic  type  have  gone 
out  of  fashion.    We  have,  it  is  true,  from  Tanagra 
aged  nurses  seated  with  children  on  their  knees; 
but   they  belong  to   the  class  of  subjects  taken 
from   daily  life   which   properly   rank   among  the 
grotesque  figures  common  to  both  periods.   Then  again 
there  is  among  the  Tanagra  statuettes  a  very  liberal 
introduction  of  boys  and  young  girls,  not  treated 
as  figures  of  daily  life,  but  idealized.    Nor  must  we 
forget  the  Cupids  which,  though  not  so  frequent  at 
Tanagra,  are  often  found  among  the  terra-cottas  of 
Myrina  and  elsewhere.   There  is  nothing  like  them  in 
the  archaic  age.    So  also,  if  we  compare  the  numerous 
grotesque  figures,  we  shall  find   that  the  archaic 
specimens  are  abnormally  repulsive  in  most  cases, 
whereas   those   of  the   Tanagra   epoch  appear  to 


Chap.  VIII.] 


345 


have  been  derived  from  a  genial  observation  of 
the  humorous  sides  of  common  life.  When  truly 
grotesque  they  are  more  often  drawn  from  the  comic 
stage  than  not. 

If,  then,  the  coroplastae  of  Tanagra  went  to  common 
life  to  furnish  subjects  of  genial  amusement  for 
the  people,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  for  their 
ideal  female  figures  they  took  as  a  basis  the  types 
of  youthful  beauty,  costume,  and  manners  which 
were  acknowledged  in  their  time  to  be  nearest  to 
ideals.  Similarly,  if  the  archaic  coroplastse  period 
sought  for  subjects  to  amuse  the  people  by  the 
creation  of  grotesque  and  fanciful  figures  outside  of 
nature,  and  originating  rather  in  a  foreign  art,  it  is 
likely  that  their  ideal  female  figures  were  also  more 
in  the  nature  of  variations  on  works  of  higher  or  older 
art  than  on  actual  observation  of  the  types  of  female 
beauty  acknowledged  in  their  day.  And  in  fact  there 
is  far  more  in  common  between  the  ideal  terra-cottas 
of  the  archaic  period  and  contemporary  sculpture 
than  there  is  between  the  Tanagra  statuettes  and  the 
sculpture  coeval  with  them.  To  put  it  otherwise, 
there  is  more  of  artistic  choice  among  the  archaic 
ideal  figures,  more  of  fashion  and  cultivated  taste  in 
those  of  Tanagra. 

It  remains  now  to  consider  briefly  a  class  of  terra- 
cottas which  have  been  brought  into  notice  of  late 
years.  They  mostly  consist  of  groups,  larger  in 
dimension  than  is  usual  among  terra-cottas.  There 
are  many  youthful  female  figures,  singly  or  in  groups, 
remarkable  for  their  tall  proportions,  which  are  set  off 
by  a  close  clinging  drapery  full  of  narrow  folds  which 
run  lengthwise  of  the  figure.  And  besides,  the  tall 
proportions  of  these  figures,  with  their  high  waists,  are 


346   HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHEOLOGY.   [Chap.  VIII. 

often  increased  in  effect  by  the  attitudes  of  lying 
stretched  on  a  rock  or  reclining  on  some  elaborate  chair 
or  couch  in  a  pose  of  exhaustion  which  appears  to 
have  followed  upon  some  excess  of  sentiment  or 
passion.1  There  are  also  large  groups  representing 
scenes  from  daily  life  ;  but  in  the  examples  of  this, 
sort  which  we  have  seen,  there  is  none  of  the  direct 
observation  of  common  nature  and  the  vigorous- 
rendering  of  the  same  which  characterise  the  terra- 
cottas of  this  kind  in  the  Tanagra  period.  On  the 
contrary,  the  figures  carry  with  them  into  the  most 
ordinary  scenes  much  the  same  appearance  and 
bearing  which  they  exhibit  in  the  idealized  scenes. 
This  implies  a  curious  artistic  defect. 

In  not  a  few  of  the  groups  it  is  noticeable  that  they 
have  been  made  to  present  to  the  front  the  appearance 
of  a  relief.  Take  for  example  a  known  group,* 
representing  Bacchus  pulling  back  a  bull  which  a 
small  Cupid  leads  on  in  front.  That  is  practically  a 
relief,  though  it  is  finished  at  the  back  so  as  to  stand 
by  itself,  like  the  other  groups.  But  the  point  we  wish 
to  notice  specially  is  the  way  in  which  the  drapery 
floating  behind  Bacchus  is  made  to  form  a  piece  of 
background.  The  same  use  of  floating  drapery  to 
form  a  background  is  a  characteristic  of  a  number  of 
these  groups,  and  in  all  cases  the  treatment  of  tho 
draperies  is  the  same,  implying  a  poverty  of  invention. 
In  this  group  of  Bacchus  it  will  be  remarked  that  as 
a  bearded  Bacchus  he  ought  to  have  a  long  robe 
reaching  to  the  feet.    Instead  of  that  he  wears  a  short 

1  See  the  specimens  published  in  the  Catalogue  of  the  Exhibi- 
tion of  the  Burlington  Fine  Arts  Club  (1888),  184,  192,  173. 

2  Catalogue  of  the  Burlington  Fine  Arts  Club  Exhibition  (1888),. 
No.  214. 


Chap.  VIII.] 


TEKKA-COTTAS. 


347 


chiton  and  high  boots  which  would  better  become  the 
youthful  Bacchus.  This  mixture  of  the  old  and  the 
young  Bacchus  gives  the  figure  an  absurd  appearance. 
As  regards  the  bull,  the  feebleness  with  which  its  legs 
and  head  are  rendered  is  such  as  would  not  surprise 
us  in  Dresden  china. 

It  is  stated  that  these  terra-cottas  were  found  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Myrina  in  Asia  Minor.  But  they 
have  little  in  common  with  the  many  terra-cottas 
from  Myrina  now  in  the  Louvre.  The  clay  is  like 
that  of  Tanagra,  and  probably  not  a  few  of  these 
groups  are  modern  forgeries  made  from  clay  of  that 
district. 


348    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PAINTING. 

Ovro)  p,ev  hr)  nopevOevres  rrpbs  rrjv  Qeoborrjv  Kai  KarakafiovTes 
£o)ypd<p(d  Tiv\  Trapeo-TrjKvlav,  idedo-avro. — XENOPHON,  Memorabilia, 
iii.  11,  2. 

An  ancient  writer,  referring  to  the  origin  of  paint- 
ing in  Greece,  says  that  there  was  a  time  when  this  art 
had,  so  to  speak  been  brought  up  on  milk  and  in 
swaddling-clothes,  when  the  figures  were  drawn  so  un- 
like nature  that  the  painters  wrote  beside  them  6  this 
is  an  ox,  that  is  a  horse,  this  is  a  tree ; ' 1  and  in  another 
passage2  he  repeats  the  phrase  about  the  milk  and 
swaddling-clothes  in  order  to  characterise  the  stage  of 
painting  that  had  preceded  Cimon  of  CleonaG,  whom 
he  regards  as  the  first  Greek  painter  of  consequence. 
Other  ancient  writers  appear  to  have  thought  that  the 
first  important  step  in  the  art  had  been  made  through 
the  accidental  observance  of  the  shadow  of  a  person 
cast  on  a  stucco  wall.  Such,  for  instance,  is  the  story- 
told  by  Pliny  of  the  daughter  of  Butades  the  potter 
in  Corinth,  who  traced  the  shadow  of  her  lover's  face 
on  a  wall.3    This  again  is  amplified  by  another  late 

1  Aelian,  'Var.  Hist.,'  x.  10. 

2  Aelian,  ibid.,  viii.  8. 

3  Pliny,  <  Nat.  Hist.,'  xxxv.  151. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


349 


writer  1  who  speaks  of  the  tracing  of  shadows,  and 
cites  the  daughter  of  Butades  under  the  general  term 
of  6  a  Corinthian  girl.'  But  he  adds  also  several  other 
names,  Cleanthes  of  Corinth,  Craton  of  Sikyon,  and 
Saurias  of  Samos.  These  also  practised  skiagraphy, 
using  no  longer  the  wall  of  a  room  and  a  torch-light, 
as  did  the  daughter  of  Butades,  but  panels  covered 
with  a  white  slip  (irLvaices  XeXevncofxevou),  which  they 
exposed  to  the  sun.  Craton  of  Sikyon  went  farther 
and  employed  colours  to  fill  in  the  outlines  of  men 
and  women  cast  by  the  sun  on  his  prepared  panels. 
That  was  a  marked  advance. 

It  will  be  seen  that  with  the  important  exception  of 
Saurias  of  Samos,  the  painters  here  mentioned  belong- 
to  Corinth,  or  the  region  near  it.  To  these  we  may 
add  from  Pliny's  list  of  the  oldest  painters,  Aridikes  of 
Corinth,  Telephanes  of  Sikyon,  and  Ecphantos  of 
Corinth.  These  names  occur  in  the  very  meagre 
account  which  Pliny  gives  (xxxv.  16)  of  the  begin- 
nings of  the  art  of  painting  ;  and  taking  the  passage 
altogether,  we  gather  the  impression  that  he  had  before 
his  mind  an  idea  that  the  art  had  actually  begun  in 
Corinth.  He  was  aware  of  the  early  fame  of  Corinth 
in  the  working  of  terra-cotta.  He  knew  that  Corinth 
had  been  associated  with  painting  in  its  earliest  stages. 
He  had  the  tradition  before  him  that  Corinthian 
artists  had  settled  in  Etruria  along  with  Demaratos, 
the  father  of  Tarquin,  and  had  there  introduced  their 
skill  in  drawing  and  painting  as  well  as  in  terra-cotta. 
He  cites  (xxxv.  17)  pictures  at  Ardea,  which  still 
looked  fresh,  though  for  a  long  period  the  temples  con- 
taining them  had  been  roofless,  from  which  we  may 

1  Athenagoras,  as  quoted  by  Klein,  4  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen 
aus  Oesterreich,'  1887,  p.  196. 


350    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


reasonably  infer  that  they  had  been  painted  on  panels 
of  terra-cotta  and  then  fired.  It  is  inconceivable  that 
paintings  on  stucco  could  have  stood  such  exposure 
without  absolute,  or  next  to  absolute,  destruction.  At 
Lanuvium  he  found  similar  paintings,  and  at  Caere 
yet  older  examples,  which  led  him  to  remark  on  the 
singular  rapidity  with  which  the  art  had  developed, 
seeing  that  it  had  not  existed  to  all  appearance  in  the 
time  of  the  Trojan  war  ! 

We  can  form  an  idea  of  the  paintings  at  Caere  by  a 
series  of  terra-cotta  panels  from  that  town  now  in  the 
British  Museum.  These  panels  had  formed  a  decora- 
tion on  the  interior  walls  of  a  tomb.  The  figures 
represented  on  them  are  engaged  in  actions  appro- 
priate to  a  tomb.  They  are  painted  in  black  and  red 
on  a  white  slip.1  Or  we  may  take  another  series  of 
similar  panels  of  terra-cotta  in  the  Louvre,  with  figures 
also  painted  on  a  white  slip.2  The  faces  are  drawn 
according  to  a  uniform  pattern,  and  yet  with  a  native 
sense  of  beauty  in  the  long  sweeping  lines  of  brow 
and  nose  and  chin.  The  attitudes  are  uniform,  one 
leg  in  advance  of  the  other,  and  the  feet  close  to  the 
ground,  on  heel  as  well  as  toe.  Yet  in  the  figure 
altogether  there  is  an  artistic  perception  of  a  large 
style.  The  details  of  forms,  as  in  the  bones  of  the 
knees,  the  nostrils  and  ears,  are  given  in  a  decorative 
manner  based  upon  actual  study.  And  so  far  we  may 
be  said  to  have  in  these  paintings  an  illustration  of 
that  stage  of  the  art  in  Italy  which  drew  forth  the 
praise  of  Pliny  in  recognition  of  the  rapid  progress  it 
had  made  in  those  very  early  times. 

But  there  are  some  points  in  these  paintings  which 

1  *  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,'  x.  PI.  7,  and  p.  243  fol. 

2  <  Mon.  dell'  Inst.  Arch.,'  vi.,  vii.,  PL  30. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


351 


we  may  leave  for  a  moment  till  we  have  considered  a 
question  that  arises  out  of  the  account  of  Pliny,  of 
which  we  have  been  speaking.  He  says  that  the 
Emperor  Caligula  had  tried  to  remove  certain 
examples  of  the  earliest  painting  at  Lanuvium,  but 
had  failed  because  of  the  nature  of  the  material 
(tectorii  natura).  Clearly  this  was  no  case  of  terra-cotta 
panels.  Any  decay  which  would  interfere  with  the 
moving  of  terra-cotta  would  long  before  have  annihi- 
lated the  paintings.  Besides  the  word  tectorii  implies 
a  stucco  wall.  It  is  quite  conceivable  that  paintings 
on  stucco  had  retained  much  of  their  original  beauty 
after  the  material  behind,  them  had  become  too  perish- 
able to  be  removed.  We  must  therefore  conclude  that 
this  branch  of  the  art  had  been  practised  along  with 
that  of  painting  on  terra-cotta  in  the  early  ages  of 
which  Pliny  is  speaking.  Probably  little  of  it  had 
survived  to  his  time,  and  this  may  have  been  the 
reason  why  he  seems  to  have  associated  the  beginnings 
of  painting  with  terra-cotta  panels  principally. 

But  of  late  years  the  excavations  at  Tiryns  and 
Mycenae  have  brought  to  light  several  examples  of 
painting  on  stucco  which  are  certainly  older  than  those 
mentioned  by  Pliny.  Pliny  does  not  claim  to  go 
farther  back  than  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  and  from  all  that 
has  been  ascertained  about  the  Corinthian  painters 
whose  names  we  have  quoted  above,  the  early  part  of 
the  7th  cent,  would  suit  them.  The  stucco  paint- 
ings of  Tiryns  and  Mycenae  are  characterised  by  the 
same  spirit  and  the  same  choice  of  subjects  for 
representation  which  we  observe  on  what  is  now  a 
wide  range  of  antiquities,  including  engraved  gems, 
painted  vases,  inlaid  bronze  swords,  designs  in  opaque 
glass,  ivory,  and  gold.    These  antiquities  we  have 


352     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


already  discussed,  and  whatever  their  origin  and  date 
may  ultimately  be  proved  to  be,  they  are  beyond 
a  doubt  older  than  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  It  is  possible 
that  those  of  them  that  have  been  found  in  Greece 
proper  had  been  imported.  Nor  is  it  impossible  that 
these  paintings  on  the  walls  of  buildings  at  Tiryns 
and  Mycenge  had  been  executed  by  foreigners.  The 
tradition  that  the  walls  of  Tiryns  had  been  built  by 


btllililMill! 

Fig.  115.    Wall-painting  from  Tiryns. 


Cyclopes  from  Lycia  may  have  had  some  foundation 
in  the  actual  importation  of  skilled  labour  in  remote 
times,  when  Greece  as  yet  was  only  emerging  out  of 
darkness.  And  this  imported  labour  may  have  in- 
cluded painters. 

At  all  events  we  have  here  the  proof  that  painting 
on  stucco  walls  had  been  practised  in  Greece  at  a  very 
early  age.    The  example  from  Tiryns  represents  a 
bull,1  drawn  very  vigorously,  but  rudely  (Fig.  115). 
1  Schliemann,  '  Tiryns,'  PL  13. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


353 


Above  the  bull — but  doubtless  intended  to  be  at  its 
farther  side — is  a  man  trying  to  seize  the  bull  by  the 
horns.  On  the  fragments  from  Mycenae,  which  are 
painted  in  bright  reds,  blues,  and  yellows,  we  have  a 
singular  group  of  asses,1  which  walk  upright,  carrying 
a  pole  over  their  shoulders  and  reminding  us  of 
Bottom  when  he  was  translated.  On  an  engraved  gem 
and  a  bronze  vase  from  Cyprus  of  this  same  date,  is  to 
be  seen  a  group  of  two  lions  standing  upright  like 
men,  and  each  holding  out  in  front  of  the  other  a  wine- 
jug  or  oenochoe.2  Such  fantastic  creatures  could  only, 
one  would  suppose,  have  been  invented  for  the  decora- 
tion of  a  dining-hall  like  that  of  Alcinoos,  where  golden 
youths  held  torches  and  where  dogs  of  gold  and  silver 
served  as  ornaments  (Odyssey,  vii.  91).  The  question 
that  interests  us  is,  Where  were  they  invented  ? 

Among  the  Tiryns  fragments  is  a  fairly  drawn  head 
of  a  camel ; 3  and  since  the  camel  does  not  occur  on 
any  Egyptian  monument  previous  to  quite  late  times, 
and  since  in  early  Assyrian  art  the  camel  is  common 
enough,  we  are  obliged  to  think  of  Asia  Minor  as  the 
source  from  which  the  knowledge  of  it  and  the  artistic 
power  of  rendering  it  was  brought  to  Mycenge.  Here 
again,  if  we  have  any  faith  in  tradition,  we  recall  the 
story  with  which  Herodotus  opens  his  history,  telling 
how  a  ship  of  Phoenician  traders  having  come  to  Argos 
— therefore  to  Mycenae  and  Tiryns  also — to  sell  their 
wares,  carried  off  a  princess,  and  thus  began  the  enmity 
between  east  and  west  which  resulted  in  the  great 

1  'Epkem.  Arch.,'  1887,  PI.  10. 

2  The  gem  is  published,  'Ephem.  Arch.,'  1889,  PL  10,  No.  35. 
The  bronze  is  given  in  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  *  Hist,  de  l'Art  Ant.,' 
iii.,  pp.  794-5. 

3  'Ephem.  Arch,,'  1887,  PI.  11. 

2  A 


354    HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCELEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


Persian  wars.  But  the  camel's  head  is  not  the  only- 
feature  in  these  paintings  which  points  to  a  connec- 
tion with  the  east  through  the  Phoenicians.  The 
figures  of  asses  and  lions — acting  as  human  beings — 
have  numerous  parallels  in  the  art  of  Assyria.  And 
besides,  there  is  a  finely  painted  head  of  a  horse  with 
his  mane  tied  in  upright  knots,  which,  though  not 
precisely  like  any  horse's  mane  in  Assyrian  or  Persian 
art,  is  yet  clearly  of  kin  to  them.  More  strikingly 
suggestive  of  the  east  is  a  Mycenae  fragment  of  a 
warrior  whose  dress  has  a  long  sleeve  fastened  round 
the  wrist,  exactly  such  as  was  worn  by  the  Persians 
and  Phrygians,  to  judge  by  the  representations  of 
those  races  in  Greek  art.  As  a  witness  of  the 
technical  skill  of  the  painter,  it  may  be  pointed  out 
that  he  renders  the  high  folds  of  the  sleeve  by  a  nearly 
white  colour,  the  ground  colour  of  the  material  being 
a  dark  red.  He  knew  that  where  the  light  struck 
most  must  be  as  nearly  white  as  possible  and  in  this 
respect  his  practice  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  latest 
fresco  painting  in  Pompeii. 

Though  these  facts  point  to  Assyria,  with  the 
region  between  it  and  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  they 
would  hardly  by  themselves  be  sufficient  to  exclude 
the  not  unnatural  belief  that  a  great  ancient  civilisa- 
tion, such  as  that  of  Egypt,  must  have  acted  largely 
on  the  rising  art  of  Greece.  It  did  so  in  fact  in 
many  ways.  But  for  several  centuries  previous  to  the 
7th  cent.  B.C.  Egypt  had  been,  so  to  speak,  any  man's 
land  ;  in  particular  it  had  been  the  victim  of  Assyria. 
Ionians  and  Carians  went  there  for  trade  and  war. 
The  Phoenicians  had  settlements  there,  and  of  late 
years  numbers  of  painted  vases  have  been  found  in 
Egypt   identical   in   every  respect   with   those  of 


Chap.  IX.] 


355 


Mycenae  and  their  kindred.  In  fact  Egypt  was 
rather  acted  upon  than  acting.  On  the  other  hand 
the  presence  of  scarabs  with  Egyptian  hieroglyphs  at 
Mycenae  and  Ialysos,  is  evidence  that  she  also  had 
her  share  in  this  artistic  movement.  Indeed  to  make 
an  inference  from  the  actual  remains  of  Egypt,  with 
its  long  list  of  paintings  on  the  stucco  walls  of  tombs, 
it  would  be  that  Egypt  had  been  the  inspiring  source 
of  the  art  of  Tiryns  and  Mycenae,  not  Assyria,  in 
spite  of  appearances  in  favour  of  the  latter.  The 
Egyptians  claimed  to  have  practised  painting  6000 
years  before  it  reached  Greece ;  and  Pliny,  though 
casting  ridicule  on  this  claim,  mentions  among  the 
oldest  painters,  Philocles  the  Egyptian,  evidently  a 
Greek,  who  had  settled  in  Egypt. 

It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
Assyrians  have  left  us  a  number  of  specimens  of 
enamelled  paintings,  which,  though  technically  in  a 
different  process,  have  yet  artistically  much  in 
common  with  the  Tiryns  fragments.  See,  for  example, 
the  bull  (Perrot,  ii.,  p.  291). 

The  result  may  be  summed  up  thus  :  the  immediate 
sources  of  inspiration  for  the  oldest  painting  in  stucco 
in  Greece  had  been  the  early  Greek  settlers  on  the 
coast  of  Asia  Minor,  they  in  their  turn  having 
acquired  their  skill  and  established  their  manner  in 
the  study  of  the  older  art  of  Egypt  and  Assyria.  The 
change  to  painting  on  terra-cotta  panels  had  been 
made,  as  we  have  suggested,  about  the  beginning  of 
the  7th  cent.  B.C.  We  may  assume  that  this  change 
also  came  originally  from  Asia  Minor  and  took  hold 
first  in  Corinth  and  its  neighbourhood,  passing  thence 
to  Etruria,  and  in  this  connection  we  may  return  to 
the  terra-cotta  panels  from  Caere,  cited  above,  for  the 

2  a  2 


356     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 

sake  of  noticing  that  one  of  the  figures  carries  over 
his  shoulder  a  military  standard  surmounted  by  a 
bull.  The  bull  is  of  a  quite  Assyrian  type.  The 
mere  idea  of  a  standard  is  peculiarly  Assyrian  in  its 
origin.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  every  Babylonian  had 
a  standard  surmounted  by  the  figure  of  some  animal 
or  flower  or  other  object.  Thence  the  use  of  a 
standard  seems  to  have  passed  to  the  Etruscans,  and 
from  the  Etruscans  it  certainly  was  handed  on  to  the 
Romans.  Moreover  the  type  of  face  on  the  Caere 
paintings  is  markedly  Assyrian. 

But  the  point  which  we  have  to  keep  chiefly  in  view 
here  is  the  immediate  contact  of  Greece  and  Etruria 
on  the  one  hand  with  Asia  Minor,  on  the  other  in  the 
matter  of  painting.  To  this  end  we  may  call  attention 
to  a  number  of  archaic  sarcophagi  of  terra-cotta 
from  Clazomenae  and  elsewhere  in  Asia  Minor,  with 
designs  of  battles,  bands  of  animals  and  such  like 
painted  on  them.  One  of  these  sarcophagi,  now  in 
Berlin,  has  been  published  in  colours,  and  deserves 
careful  study ; 1  or  we  may  take  as  more  convenient 
certain  fragments  in  the  British  Museum  from  the 
same  site  and  of  the  same  date,  comparing  also  a  well- 
known  terra-cotta  sarcophagus  in  the  British  Museum 
from  Camiros  in  Rhodes.2  At  the  head  of  this  latter 
is  painted  a  fine  group  of  a  bull  between  two  lions ;  the 
same  subject  recurs  in  the  Berlin  sarcophagus.  And 
it  will  be  noticed  that  the  manner  of  painting  the 
bull  in  both  cases  has  much  in  common  with  the 

1  '  Antike  Denkmaler/  1889,  PI.  44. 

2  On  the  side  margins  of  this  sarcophagus  are  painted  two 
helmeted  heads  resembling  the  two  warriors  in  relief  on  a  tomb 
in  Phrygia,  published  by  Prof.  Ramsay,  Hellenic  Journal,'  ix., 
p.  363  ;  cf.  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  '  Hist,  de  l'Art  Ant,,'  iv.  p.  173. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


357 


Tiryns  bull.  That  is  to  say,  in  all  three  instances 
the  back  and  belly  of  the  bull  are  painted  with 
large  regular  patches,  always  of  the  same  shape 
and  order.  That  these  patches  were  meant  to  in- 
dicate a  piebald  colour  seems  the  most  probable 
explanation.  Undoubtedly  the  drawing  on  the 
sarcophagi  is  a  marked  advance  on  that  of  the 
Tiryns  bull ;  but  the  distance  of  time  between  them 
can  hardly  have  been  very  great  when  so  conven- 
tional a  manner  of  rendering  colours  is  the  same  in 
both. 

A  similar  inference  will  follow  if  we  compare  what 
was  a  favourite  ornament  in  the  paintings  of  Tiryns1 — 
the  heart-shaped  border — with  the  form  of  ornament  on 
the  Berlin  sarcophagus.  Essentially  it  is  the  same, 
and  yet  an  obvious  advance  of  skill  has  been  made  by 
the  painter  of  the  sarcophagus.  Such  ornaments  as 
the  spiral,  wave  pattern,  and  guilloche  are  frequent  at 
Tiryns,  as  on  the  sarcophagus  and  early  vases  from 
Camiros  in  Rhodes. 

It  may  be  remarked  also  that  a  feature  in  the 
painted  pottery  found  at  Tiryns  is  this,  that  the  outlines 
of  the  figures  are  accompanied  by  a  row  of  white  dots,2 
which  gives  a  curiously  spotted  appearance  to  the 
designs.  On  some  of  the  sarcophagi  from  Clazomense 
this  process  is  carried  out,  though  there  its  effect  has 
none  of  the  rudeness  which  characterizes  the  Tiryns 
pottery.  Nowhere,  however,  is  this  spotted  process  so 
fully  developed  as  on  a  series  of  early  Etruscan  vases 
in  the  Louvre.  On  some  of  these  vases,  as  also  on 
an  oenochoe  from  Vulci  in  the  British  Museum,  the 
heart-shaped  border  of  Tiryns  has  been  modified 

1  Schliemann,  '  Tiryns,'  PI.  10,  Figs.  g-i. 

2  Ibid.,  Pis.  14-15. 


358     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


considerably.  These  vases  have  on  other  grounds 
been  traced  to  an  origin  in  Asia  Minor.1 

A  reasonable  date  for  the  sarcophagi  of  Clazornense 
and  Camiros  would  be  the  latter  half  of  the  7th  cent, 
B.C.  In  that  case  the  fine  skill  with  which  they  have 
been  painted  reveals  an  art  which  must  have  been 
practised  in  Asia  Minor  long  before.  At  present  we 
have  no  remains  of  this  older  art.  We  have,  however, 
the  statement  of  Pliny  (xxxv.  55),  that  a  picture 
representing  a  battle  of  Magnesians  (with  whom  is 
not  said)  had  been  painted  in  Asia  Minor  by  one 
Bularchos.  It  was  painted  on  a  tabula,  and  was 
valued  at  its  weight  in  gold,  from  which  we  may 
conclude  that  it  had  been  painted  on  some  tolerably 
heavy  and  movable  substance,  such  as  a  terra-cotta 
panel.  This  picture,  says  Pliny,  was  executed  in  the 
reign  of  the  Lydian  king  Candaules,  whom  he  places 
as  a  contemporary  of  Romulus.  This  Candaules, 
called  also  Myrsilos  and  Sadyattes,  was  the  immediate 
predecessor  of  Gyges  and  is  to  be  accepted  as  having 
reigned  into  the  beginning  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C.,  so 
that  we  have  here  a  record  of  a  battle-scene  painted 
as  early  as  700  B.C.  In  the  light  of  the  Berlin 
sarcophagus  from  Clazomense  we  can  imagine  the 
picture  of  Bularchos  as  standing  about  midway 
between  it  and  the  earlier  paintings  of  Tiryns  and 
Mycenae.  In  composition  it  would  approach  the 
Berlin  sarcophagus ;  in  drawing  and  colouring  the 
paintings  of  Tiryns  and  Mycenae.  Among  those  who 
had  preceded  Bularchos,  the  name  of  Saurias  of 
Samos  alone  is  recorded.  Saurias  was  one  of  the 
first  beginners  in  the  art  of  painting,  and  for  the 

1  Diimmler,  '  Mittlieilungen  des  Inst.  Arch.'  (Rom),  ii.,  Pis. 
8-9,  p.  177. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


359 


present  we  can  only  conceive  what  his  style  may 
have  been  like  by  recalling  the  paintings  of  Tiryn 
and  Mycenae. 

Side  by  side  with  these  meagre  facts  bearing 
strictly  on  the  art  of  painting  we  have  the  early 
Greek  traditions  of  a  connection  between  Phrygia  and 
the  Peloponnesus  as  represented  in  the  legend  of 
Pelops  and  the  claim  of  the  Persian  kings  that  the 
Peloponnesus  belonged  to  them  as  of  hereditary  right 
through  the  conquest  of  it  by  Pelops.  We  have 
besides  an  array  of  artistic  considerations,  based  on 
the  existing  sculptures  of  Phrygia  compared  with 
such  sculptures  in  the  Peloponnesus  as  the  Lion 
gateway  at  Mycenae.  From  these  considerations  a 
degree  of  artistic  intercourse  between  Phrygia  and 
Greece  has  been  made  out,  and  though  the  precise 
date  of  this  intercourse  has  not  yet  been  fully 
established,  somewhere  about  the  8th  cent.  B.C.  is 
held  to  be  near  the  mark.1 

In  the  records  of  painting  in  Asia  Minor  we  pass 
from  Bularchos  with  his  battle-scene  to  a  picture  which 
was  painted  in  the  time  of  Darius ;  it  represented  his 
army  crossing  the  Bosporus  on  a  bridge,  he  himself 
seated  in  state  and  looking  on.  This  was  between 
516-514  B.C.  The  builder  of  the  bridge  was  a  certain 
Mandrocles,  who  to  perpetuate  the  event  caused  a 
picture  of  it  to  be  painted,  which  he  placed  in  the 

1  See  the  very  interesting  articles  of  Prof.  Ramsay  in  the 
4  Hellenic  Journal/  1888,  p.  350,  and  1889,  p.  147,  and  compare 
Perrot  and  Chipiez,  '  Hist,  de  l'Art  Ant.,'  vol.  iv.  The  group  of 
two  lions  which  Prof.  Eamsay  engraves,  p.  368  (vol.  ix.),  and  the 
group  which  he  restores  (ibid.  p.  361),  compare  strikingly  in 
attitude  and  conception  with  the  Mycenas  lions  ;  but  in  manner 
and  execution  they  appear  to  us  to  be  of  an  older  and  ruder  age  than 
those  of  Mycenae. 


360    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


temple  of  Hera  at  Samos.  Who  the  painter  was  is 
not  stated.  For  a  time  it  was  thought  to  have  been 
Mandrocles  himself.  But  it  appears  that  the  phrase 
employed  by  Herodotus  really  means  "to  have  a 
picture  made  ;  "  1  and  we  are  thus  free  to  think  of  it  as 
the  work  of  a  painter  pure  and  simple,  not  of  a 
builder  like  Mandrocles  with  a  turn  for  painting.  Its 
being  placed  in  the  Heraeum  would  itself  argue  a 
work  of  talent.  In  any  case  it  was  clearly  a  picture 
containing  a  large  number  of  figures,  and  this  fact  is 
worth  considering  for  a  moment.  An  art  which  had 
grown  up  in  Asia  Minor,  above  all  at  Samos,  must  in 
its  early  stages  have  been  in  touch  with  the  older  arts 
of  Assyria  and  Egypt.  In  these  countries  a  multitude 
of  figures  was  a  common  feature  of  art.  Witness  the 
long  lines  of  low  reliefs  and  of  paintings.  Something 
of  that  kind  could  hardly  have  failed  to  reach  the 
incipient  Greek  painting  in  Samos  and  elsewhere  in 
Asia  Minor.  We  may  assume  that  this  was  a  feature 
in  the  battle-picture  of  Bularchos,  though  probably 
not  to  the  same  extent  as  in  the  '  Bridge  of  the 
Bosporus.'  And  when  after  a  little  we  find  the 
Asiatic  school  of  painting  transferred  to  Athens  and 
Greece  proper  under  the  influence  of  Polygnotos, 
there  also  the  faculty  of  dealing  with  large  composi- 
tions is  conspicuously  present. 

The  first  name  among  the  great  painters  is  that  of 
Polygnotos.  From  a  past  that  is  almost  a  blank  as  to 
records,  he  takes  us  at  once  into  a  new  world  of  artistic 
creations.    We  know  indeed  a  little  of  his  father 

1  iv.  88 :  £g>u  ypayjrdfxevos  nacrav  rfjv  £€v£lv  rov  fioviropov. 
See  R.  Foster,  in  '  Arch.  Zeit.,'  1874,  p.  99,  who  cites  passages 
to  prove  this  to  he  the  meaning  of  the  phrase.  Cf.  Klein,  4  Arch. 
Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,;  1888  (xii.)>  p.  85. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


361 


Aglaophon,  by  whom  he  had  been  trained  in  the 
northern  island  of  Thasos.  We  know  also  something  of 
what  had  been  achieved  by  the  Greeks,  before  his  time 
in  sculpture,  in  vase  painting,  and  in  gem  engraving. 
When  Polygnotos  appeared  these  arts  were  rivalling 
each  other  in  the  production  of  figures  and  scenes 
illustrative  of  legendary  and  mythical  story.  There 
was  abundance  of  invention  in  attitudes  and  action. 
There  was  a  passionate  love  of  accuracy  in  details  of 
costume  and  of  form.  Art  was  essentially  illustrative 
of  the  legends  and  myths  that  had  so  strong  a  hold  on 
the  imaginations  of  the  people.  What  it  lacked  was 
expression  and  dignity.  It  had  the  power  of  expres- 
sion only  so  far  as  it  is  exhibited  in  action.  The  form  of 
expression  which  reveals  motives  and  character  it  had 
not.  How  far  Polygnotos  changed  this  aspect  of  affairs 
we  can  judge  only  by  the  records  which  exist  of  his 
works  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  surviving  vase 
paintings  of  his  day  on  which  his  influence  may  fairly 
be  traced. 

One  of  his  greatest  works,  probably  his  greatest, 
was  the  series  of  paintings  executed  on  the  walls  of  a 
building  at  Delphi,  known  as  the  Lesche,  which  had 
been  erected  there  at  the  cost  of  the  distant  town  of 
Knidos  in  Asia  Minor.  The  purpose  of  the  building 
was  to  be  a  place  where  people  could  meet  for  idleness 
and  gossip.  Its  construction  has  not  been  ascertained, 
but  in  one  way  or  another,  it  was  adapted  for  two  great 
pictures,  the  one  representing  6  the  captured  town  of 
Troy  and  embarcation  of  the  Greeks'  the  other 
*  Odysseus  visiting  the  Shades  '  of  those  who  inhabited 
the  lower  world.  In  both  pictures  the  subject  is 
melancholy  in  the  extreme.  No  less  was  to  be  expected 
from  a  visit  to  the  Shades;  but  it  is  singular  that  in 


362    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


dealing  with  the  war  of  Troy  the  painter  should  have 
chosen  the  final  stage  of  it,  when  the  Greeks,  having 
done  their  ruthless  work,  were  in  the  act  of  striking 
their  tents  and  leaving.  It  is  a  scene  of  desolation 
and  gloom,  without  such  relief  as  was  to  be  found  in 
the  old  familiar  groups  of  combatants.  Indeed  the 
only  person  who  is  represented  in  the  act  of  slaying 
another  is  Neoptolemos,  and  this  leads  Pausanias  to 
point  out  that  the  Lesche  stood  beside  an  enclosure 
which  contained  the  tomb  of  Neoptolemos,  he,  accord- 
ing to  tradition,  having  been  slain  there  by  a  native  of 
Delphi.  The  site  has  been  identified  as  close  to  the 
present  fountain  of  St.  Nicholas  where  future  excavation 
may  yet  reveal  the  plan  of  the  Lesche.1 

For  the  moment  we  can  only  venture  the  con- 
jecture that  a  semicircular  building  would  best  suit 
the  description  of  Pausanias  (x.  25,  1).  He  turns  to 
the  right  on  entering,  and  proceeds  to  describe  the 
6  embarcation  of  the  Greeks/  and  the  '  captured  town 
of  Troy  '  after  which  he  describes  the  opposite  picture 
of  '  Odysseus  visiting  the  Shades.'  But  between  the 
pictures  he  places  the  epigram  of  the  poet  Simonides 
recording  that  the  pictures  were  the  work  of  Poly- 
gnotos.  Moreover  in  describing  the  "visit  to  the 
Shades"  he  appears  to  have  gone  again  to  the 
entrance,  and  to  have  worked  his  way  through  the 
groups  back  to  the  middle  of  the  building.  In 
accordance  with  this  view  we  give  in  the  annexed 
plan  the  subjects  in  the  order  of  Pausanias  as  far  as 
concerns  the  "  visit  to  the  Shades,"  but  in  an  inverse 
order  as  far  as  concerns  the  opposite  picture,  where 

1  Ulricbs,  '  Reisen'  (1848),  p.  39  ;  cf.  p.  Ill  for  the  traditions 
as  to  the  death  of  Neoptolemos.  See  also  Pomtow,  '  Topographic 
von  Delphi'  (1889),  p.  41. 


.  us  u  is  j!  ii-  u  p\  n  ■  n 

I  |A  jj|  i;  ji  i  (If  jl  j  I  III!  j«  ji  j! 


Chap.  IX] 


PAINTING. 


363 


he  had  worked  forward  from  the  right  hand  on  enter- 
ing. That  the  picture  was  novel  in  its  conception  is 
obvious  from  the  way  in  which  Pausanias  in  describing 
it  has  to  wander  from  one  poet  to  another,  Homer, 
Lesches,  Archilochus,  and  others,  to  find  the  literary 
sources  which  Polygnotos  had  made  use  of.  The 
painter  was  no  longer  an  illustrator  of  a  particular 
legend.  He  set  himself  to  create  from  various  sources 
a  new  conception.  If  he  thus  employed  the  poetic 
materials  before  him  just  so  far  as  they  suited  a  con- 
ception of  his  own,  we  may  be  sure  that  he  had  dealt 
similarly  with  the  artistic  traditions  that  had  come 
down  to  his  day.  He  would  use  exactly  such  of  them 
as  suited  his  purpose.  Even  those  which  he  did 
employ  would  undergo  some  transformation  under  the 
impulse  of  a  new  conception. 

The  fascination  which  these  pictures  of  Polygnotos 
have  exercised  from  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  to  now  may  be  seen  in  the  extraordinary 
endeavours  that  have  been  made  to  construct  pictorial 
representations  of  them,  based  on  the  description  of 
Pausanias.  These  have  been  very  conveniently  col- 
lected and  republished  by  Professor  Benndorf,1  who 
gives  also  a  scheme  of  his  own,  for  reproducing 
the  picture  of  "captured  Troy  and  the  embarcation 
of  the  Greeks."  In  this  scheme  he  has  made  a  re- 
markable advance  beyond  his  predecessors ;  he  has 
gone  direct  to  ancient  vase  paintings,  and  has  col- 
lected from  them  the  figures  and  groups  which  he 
required.  Among  his  predecessors  it  was  recognised, 
in  particular  by  Mr.  Watkiss  Lloyd,  that  the  vases 
were  the  best  source  of  illustration,  but  no  steps  were 
taken  to  utilize  them.  The  text  of  Pausanias  was  dis- 
1  <  Vorlegeblatter '  for  1888,  Pis.  10-12. 


364    HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


cussed  and  explained  with  a  clearness  that  left  nothing 
to  be  desired ;  but  so  long  as  the  drawings  were  of  the 
bastard  classic  order  familiar  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century,  the  great  ability  of  the  writers  was  thrown 
away  on  unappreciative  readers.  Professor  Benndorf 
has  put  matters  right  so  far  that  we  now  have  the 
pictures  reproduced  strictly  on  the  principles  of  vase 
compositions.  The  effect  is  admirable  as  compared 
with  all  previous  restorations.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  obviously  much  lacking  in  the  matter  of  style. 
The  vases  chosen  are  too  often  of  a  later  and  too 
energetic  manner,  at  variance  with  the  dignity  and 
power  of  Polygnotos.1  In  searching  for  subjects  on 
the  vases  which  would  illustrate  the  descriptions  of 
Pausanias,  the  more  important  question  of  a  grand 
style  has  been  set  aside. 

We  venture  to  think  that  a  far  more  just  apprecia- 
tion of  the  work  of  Polygnotos  would  be  obtained 
were  we  to  abandon  the  idea  of  collecting  vases 
with  suitable  subjects  and  set  ourselves  rather  to 
selecting  designs  which  would  illustrate  the  style 
of  the  painter.  In  such  a  task  the  Athenian  lekythi 
would  come  readily  to  our  aid.  On  them  the  designs 
are  painted  on  a  white  ground  identical  in  appear- 
ance with  the  ground  of  the  old  fresco  paintings. 
The  colours  employed  are  probably  much  the  same 
as  those  used  by  Polygnotos.  The  subjects  are  of 
the  same  melancholy  cast  as  on  the  paintings  of  the 
Lesche.  The  painters  of  these  vases  had  much  of 
the  freedom  and  scope  which  the  fresco  painters 
enjoyed.     They  were  untrammelled  by  much  that 

1  Benndorf  has  collected  an  interesting  series  of  vases  illustrating 
the  lower  world  in  <  Vorlegeblatter '  for  1886,  called  '  Unterwelts- 
Darstellungen.' 


<Jhap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


365 


narrowed  and  confined  thern  when  working  on  vases 
of  the  ordinary  red  figure  kind.  On  these  latter  the 
painter  was  as  a  rule  confined  by  space.  Tradition  and 
habit  told  him  that  he  must  leave  as  little  background 
as  possible,  or  at  all  events  that  the  space  surrounding 
his  figures  was  more  or  less  an  indifferent  quantity. 
The  composition  must  be  complete  in  itself,  regardless 
of  background  and  space.  But  on  the  white  Athenian 
lekythi  it  is  not  so.  There  is  a  sense  of  space  and  of 
open  air.  The  composition  suits  the  vase,  but  has  not 
been  drilled  into  shape  for  it.  Take  for  instance  the 
two  beautiful  lekythi  in  the  British  Museum  represent- 
ing each  a  female  figure  seated  in  deep  despondency 
or  distress  beside  a  tombstone ;  and  specimens  even, 
more  beautiful  than  these  could  be  named.1  These 
lekythi  are  no  doubt  later  in  date  than  Polygnotos,  but 
the  striking  contrast  which  they  present  to  the  red 
figure  vases  of  their  own  time  would  itself  be  a 
proof  that  they  are  a  class  by  themselves  and  pro- 
ably  represented  a  tradition  derived  from  the  older 
and  higher  art  of  mural  painting  in  the  days  of 
Polygnotos. 

As  an  example  of  vase  painting  on  a  white  ground 
which  may  be  positively  assigned  to  the  age  of 
Polygnotos  we  may  cite  the  Bale  kylix  in  the  British 
Museum  representing  Athene  and  Hephaestos  making 
Pandora,  their  names  being  inscribed  beside  each 
figure  as  were  the  names  on  the  Lesche  at  Delphi. 
The  draperies  are  put  on  with  a  brown  colour  on 
which  the  folds   are  afterwards  slightly  indicated. 

1  See  Dumont  et  Chaplain,  c  Ceramiques,'  Pis.  25-26,  27-28  ; 
Payet  et  Collignon,  1  Hist,  de  la  Ceramique,'  p.  231 ;  Eobert, 
'  Thanatos,'  PL  2,  and  Pottier,  '  Etude  sur  les  Lekythes  blancs 
Attiques,'  1883. 


366    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


But  the  faces,  arms,  and  legs  are  rendered  only  in  out- 
line. The  white  colour  of  the  background  serves 
equally  for  the  white  of  the  flesh.  In  a  lekythos  of 
the  Branteghem  collection  the  flesh  is  put  on  with  an 
enamel,  having  a  different  shade  of  white  from  the 
background.  But  it  is  hardly  probable  that  this  pro- 
cess, very  beautiful  in  itself,  had  been  employed  on 
extensive  mural  paintings.  The  effect  would  have 
been  too  much  that  of  a  relief ;  whereas  the  whole  aim 
of  Polygnotos  was  to  get  away  from  the  crowding  of 
figures  in  a  relief,  into  open  space,  where  his  powerful 
drawing  and  overmastering  sense  of  the  beauty  resident 
in  individual  figures,  their  attitudes,  emotions,  subdued 
passions,  affections,  would  have  free  scope.  That  this 
was  his  character  is  at  once  suggested  by  a  glance  at 
the  list  of  his  groups  on  the  Lesche.  It  is  confirmed 
by  the  criticism  of  Aristotle,1  who  calls  Polygnotos  a 
painter  of  character  (ethos)  as  compared  with  Zeuxis, 
who  had  no  ethos  in  his  works.  In  another  passage 2 
Aristotle  says  that  Polygnotos  painted  men  above 
nature,  Pauson  beneath  nature,  Dionysios  like  nature. 
A  lesser  authority,  Aelian,3  who  yet  may  be  repeating 
the  opinion  of  better  and  older  judges,  speaks  of  the 
largeness  of  the  work  of  Polygnotos,  meaning  largeness 
of  style.  He  goes  on  to  note  his  manner  of  represent- 
ing actions  and  qualifies  it  by  a  phrase  (ev  rots 
TeXetot?)  which  has  been  the  subject  of  much  dispute. 
The  words  seem  to  us  to  bear  the  construction  that 
in  representing  action  he  chose  the  completed  stage  of 
the  action.  Such  at  least  was  his  rule  in  the  paint- 
ings on  the  Lesche  at  Delphi.  To  judge  from  them 
he   clearly  avoided  subjects  in  which  feeling  and 

1  '  Poetic.'  6.  2  6  Poetic.'  2. 

5  '  Var.  Hist.,'  iv.  3. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


367 


passion  have  passed  over  into  action,  according  to 
the  general  law  laid  down  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
and  accepted  by  Mr.  Darwin,  that  "  feeling  passing 
a  certain  pitch  habitually  vents  itself  in  bodily 
action." 

The  date  of  the  paintings  on  the  Lesche  was  early 
in  the  5th  cent.  B.C.  The  poet  Simonides,  who  wrote 
the  epigram  for  them,  died  in  467  B.C.  In  any  case 
it  seems  probable  that  Polygnotos  had  finished  his 
work  at  Delphi  before  going  to  Athens.  Some  at 
least  of  the  pictures  there  with  which  his  name  was 
associated,  and  for  which  he  received  the  freedom  of 
the  city,  appear  to  have  been  executed  at  a  later  date 
than  this.  He  had  been  the  friend  of  Cimon,  who  was 
then  conspicuous  in  the  Athenian  state.  He  had 
introduced  a  portrait  of  Cimon's  sister  Elpinike 
among  the  Trojan  captives  in  his  picture  on  the  Stoa 
Poekile  in  Athens.  In  Athens  as  in  Delphi  his  work 
had  been  undertaken  as  a  labour  of  love  and  not  for 
gain.  It  remains  now  to  notice  very  briefly  the  paint- 
ings in  Athens,  and  in  doing  so  we  shall  meet  with 
two  of  his  contemporaries,  Micon  and  Pansenos,  the 
latter  being  a  brother  of  Pheidias. 

On  the  Stoa  Poekile,  or  painted  porch,  were  four 
paintings,  which  Pausanias  (i.  15,  2)  gives  as : — 

1.  (irpcoTa).    Battle  of  Athenians  and  Lacedaemo- 

nians at  Oenoe,  or  rather  the  beginning  of  the 
battle.  The  combatants  were  just  getting  to 
close  quarters,  and  as  yet  there  was  no  display 
of  deeds. 

2.  (eV  tco  fjLecq)).   Battle  of  Athenians  and  Amazons, 

the  latter  being  on  horseback  partly;  by 
Micon.1 

1  See  Overbeds,  «  Schriftquellen,'  Nos.  1080-1082. 


368     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


3.  (  ).   Troy  captured  and  the  Greek  leaders 

assembled  in  connection  with  Ajax  and 
Cassandra ;  by  Polygnotos.1 

4.  (reXevraLov).   Battle  of  Marathon.    In  the  middle 

the  Persians  were  seen  driving  each  other  into 
the  marsh  in  their  flight.  At  the  extremes  were 
Phoenician  ships,  which  Persians  were  seeking 
to  reach,  but  were  being  slain  by  the  Greeks. 
The  Hero  Marathon,  Theseus,  Athene  and 
Heracles  were  present  as  supernatural  allies. 
Miltiades,  Callimachos  and  the  local  Echetlos, 
(fighting  no  doubt  with  his  ploughshare  as 
on  Etruscan  urns)  were  conspicuous  among 
leaders  and  combatants.  This  picture  was 
by  Panaenos? 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  only  picture  here 
assigned  to  Polygnotos  (No.  3)  has  much  in  common 
with  the  large  group  by  him  in  the  Lesche,  and  that 
here  again  we  have  an  example  of  attitude  and  bearing 
as  contrasted  with  action  and  energy.  In  the  second 
picture,  by  Micon,  there  must  have  been  abundance  of 
action,  while  in  the  fourth,  the  battle  of  Marathon,  by 
Pansenos,  the  violence  of  the  action  is  particularly 
described.  We  have  thus  a  clear  and  distinct  illus- 
tration of  the  contrast  between  Polygnotos  and  his 
two  contemporaries  such  as  it  appeared  to  ancient 
critics.  Panaenos  and  Micon  were  native  Athenians. 
Polygnotos  had  come  from  the  northern  island  of 
Thasos,  and  had  brought  with  him,  apart  from  his 
genius,  the  traditions  of  the  Asiatic  school  of  painting. 
These  were  circumstances  which  would  naturally  have 

1  Overbeds,  '  Schriftquellen,'  Nos.  1055-1057. 

2  Ibid.,  Nos.  1099-1108.  See  Klein,  <  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheil- 
ungen  aus  Oesterreich,'  1888,  p,  96. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


369 


led  to  contrasts  of  style  between  him  and  his  Athenian 
contemporaries. 

But  for  the  moment  we  have  to  point  out  that  no 
name  is  given  to  the  painter  of  the  first  picture, 
the  battle  at  Oenoe.  Were  we  to  judge  by  the 
description  of  Pausanias,  who  takes  pains  to  show 
that  it  was  not  an  actual  battle-picture,  but  only  the 
beginning  of  a  battle,  the  arrival  at  close  quarters,  we 
should  recognise  here  also  the  ruling  characteristic 
of  Polygnotosj  his  avoidance  of  action.  It  has  been 
thought,  however,  that  this  picture  must  have  been 
added  at  some  later  period,  and  no  record  retained  of 
the  painter.  No  actual  battle  at  Oenoe,  such  as  would 
have  furnished  a  worthy  pendant  to  Marathon,  was 
known  in  history.  In  later  times  there  had  apparently 
been  some  sort  of  engagement  there,  but  not  of  an 
importance  which  would  have  led  to  the  filling  up  of 
the  vacant  space  in  the  Stoa  Poekile,  assuming  that 
such  a  space  had  been  left.  Lately  another  and  far 
more  rational  view  has  been  put  forth.1  By  a  skilful 
combination  of  records  it  has  been  shown  that  a  battle 
of  great  importance  which  has  escaped  the  ancient 
historians  must  have  been  fought  in  the  district  ol 
Oenoe  between  the  years  462-458  B.C.  Possibly, 
therefore,  this  was  the  date  at  which  the  Stoa  was 
painted,  and  possibly  also  the  painter  was  Polygnotos, 
in  which  case  his  pictures  at  Delphi  must  have  been 
executed  previously.  It  does  not  follow  that  his  pic- 
tures in  the  Theseum  and  the  temple  of  the  Dioscuri 
at  Athens  may  not  have  been  the  work  of  an  earlier 
stage  of  his  residence  in  Greece. 

On  the  walls  of  the  temple  of  the  Dioscuri  in 
Athens  were  two  paintings  : — 

1  Robert,  in  the  '  Hermes/  1890,  p.  412. 

2  B 


370     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ABCELEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


I.  By  Polygnotos,  representing  what  Pausanias  (i.  18, 

1)  calls  the  marriage  of  the  Dioscuri  with  the 
daughters  of  Leukippos.  It  has  been  assumed 
that  what  Pausanias  meant  was  rather  the  scene 
in  which  the  Dioscuri  appeared  and  carried  off 
forcibly  the  daughters  of  Leukippos,  much  as 
they  are  represented  on  the  famous  Meidias 
vase  in  the  British  Museum.  But  that  vase  is 
admittedly  much  later  than  Polygnotos,  and 
besides,  the  violent  movement  and  action  which 
characterise  the  vase  are  at  variance  with  what 
is  known  of  the  style  of  Polygnotos.  We 
ought  therefore  to  adhere  to  the  description 
of  Pausanias,  that  the  scene  was  a  marriage, 
and  presumedly  more  or  less  quiet  and  dig- 
nified. 

II.  By  Micon  ;  a  picture  of  the  Argonauts.    It  also 

was  strictly  appropriate  to  a  temple  of  the 
Dioscuri  since  they  had  been  leading  persons 
in  the  voyage  of  the  Argo.    But  it  is  difficult 
to  determine  what   precisely  was  the  scene 
selected  out  of  the  numerous  adventures  of  the 
Argonauts  ;  not  improbably  it  was,  as  has  been 
argued,1  the  funeral  obsequies  of  Pelias. 
In  the  Theseum  at  Athens  were  three  pictures. 
Pausanias  (i.  17,  2),  when  he  comes  to  the  third  in 
the  series,  introduces  the  painter  Micon  as  if  it  were  an 
understood  matter  that  he  had  painted  all  the  three. 
As  against  this  testimony  we  have  only  a  vague 
statement  of  the   lexicographer   Harpocration  (s.v. 
Polygnotos)  that  Polygnotos  had  taken  a  share  in  the 
paintings  of  the  Theseum.    We  may  reasonably  con- 

1  Klein,  6  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,'  1888, 
p.  98. 


371 


elude  for  Micon  as  the  author  of  them  all.  They  were 
as  follows : — 

I.  Battle  of  Athenians  and  Amazons,  as  to  which  it 

is  singular  that  Pausanias  compares  it  with  the 
same  subject  on  the  shield  of  Athene  in  the 
Parthenon  and  on  the  base  of  the  Zeus  at 
Olympia,  but  omits  to  mention  that  Micon  had 
painted  a  battle  of  Athenians  and  Amazons  on 
•  the  Stoa  Poekile,  which  he  (Pausanias)  has 
already  described. 

II.  Battle  of  Lapiths  and  Centaurs,  in  which 
Theseus  has  already  slain  his  Centaur.  The 
other  groups  are  still  in  combat. 

III.  On  the  third  wall  the  subject  was  difficult  to 
recognise,  partly  because  time  had  told  on  the 
picture  and  partly  because  Micon  had  chosen 
only  one  scene  out  of  a  long  story.  Minos  had 
thrown  his  ring  into  the  sea  and  challenged 
Theseus  to  fetch  it.  The  painter  chose  the 
moment  when  Theseus  rises  triumphant  from 
the  sea,  holding  the  ring  of  Minos  and  a  gold 
crown  which  the  sea-goddess  Amphitrite  had 
given  him — a  subject  which  is  very  finely 
drawn  on  a  kylix  by  Euphronios,  now  in  the 
Louvre. 

Of  the  works  of  Panaenos,  in  addition  to  that  already 
mentioned,  the  battle  of  Marathon  in  the  Stoa  Poekile, 
we  have  in  Pausanias  (v.  11,  2)  the  record  of  a  series  of 
groups  which  he  painted  on  the  barrier  round  the 
great  statue  of  Zeus  at  Olympia.  This  barrier  en- 
closed a  square  space  in  front  of  the  statue.  It  had 
three  sides  available  for  pictures.  I  have  elsewhere 
('  History  of  Greek  Sculpture/  ii.,  p.  126)  proposed  the 
following  arrangement  of  them  : — 

2  b  2 


372     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


Door. 


\ 

Achilles 
\  and 
x  Penthesilea. 

m      a  \ 

Hesperide. 

Hesperide. 

Heracles 
and 
Atlas. 

% 

gs.i 

I  e 

Heracle 
and 

Promethe 

1 

Base  of  Statue. 

Hippodameia 
and 
Sterope. 

Hellas 

and 
Salamis. 

Ajax 
and 
Cassandra. 

Heracles 
and 
Lion. 

We  have  dealt  at  some  length  with  these  great 
painters — Polygnotos,  Micon,  and  Panaenos — because 
they  represented  at  once  the  climax  of  that  older  stage 
of  the  art  which  we  had  been  endeavouring  to  trace 
from  its  origin,  and  the  preparation  for  a  new 
departure.  Such  comparisons  as  we  have  pointed  out 
in  the  manner  of  composition  between  Polygnotos  on 
the  one  hand  and  Micon  and  Panaenos  on  the  other 
may  serve  to  indicate  that  an  older  ideal  of  calmness 
and  dignity  was  giving  way  rapidly  to  movement  and 
action.  With  this  new  and  growing  conception  new 
technical  methods  came  into  demand.  The  more  they 
were  supplied  the  more  the  old  ideal  of  fresco  painting 
disappeared.  The  new  methods  were  such  as  to 
encourage  the  painting  of  pictures  on  isolated  panels, 


€hap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


373 


or,  to  use  a  modern  phrase,  easel  pictures.  It  would 
seem  as  if  the  practice  of  mural  painting  had  itself 
been  abandoned,  were  we  to  judge  by  the  literary 
records.  On  the  other  hand  the  villas  of  Pompeii,  and 
some  excellent  frescos  found  of  late  years  in  Rome, 
afford,  as  we  shall  see,  sufficient  evidence  that  the  art 
had  never  been  actually  abandoned,  though  it  had 
ceased  to  attract  the  finest  talent. 

The  first  decided  change  after  the  time  of 
Polygnotos  was  directed  at  obtaining  scenic  effect. 
The  name  associated  with  this  change  was  that  of 
Apollodoros  of  Athens,  to  whom  was  applied  the 
epithet  of  skenographos,  or  what  was  considered  its 
equivalent  in  those  days,  skiagraphos.  That  is  to  say, 
he  was  a  painter  of  scenic  effects  which  he  obtained  by 
means  of  light  and  shadow.  He  was  the  first,  it  is  said, 
"  to  attain  glory  by  a  true  use  of  the  brush,  and  the 
first  to  give  individuality  to  his  figures.1  Instead  of 
the  older  method,  in  which  figures  had  been  largely 
painted  only  in  outline,  as  we  see  them  on  the 
Athenian  lekythi,  he  had  filled  in  the  whole  of  them 
with  colour  and  had  aimed  at  roundness  of  form  and 
vitality  of  expression  in  the  faces.  For  his  scenic 
effects  he  may  be  supposed  to  have  introduced  a 
liberal  amount  of  perspective.  He  is  said  to  have 
thus  opened  the  door  of  art  into  which  Zeuxis  after- 
wards entered.  But  it  appears  that  this  new  and  bold 
method  of  Apollodoros  had  met  with  hostile  criticism. 
He  is  recorded  to  have  inscribed  on  his  works  the 
phrase,  "  It  is  easier  to  find  fault  than  to  rival."  2 

1  Pliny,  N.H.  xxxv.,  60  :  Hie  primus  species  exprimere  instituit 
primusque  gloriam  penicillo  jure  contulit. 

2  Plutarch,  '  De  Glor.  A  then.,'  2,  /zo^o-erai  ns  fiaXkov  rj 
fALfJLrjaerai. 


374     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX, 


About  this  time  or  a  little  earlier  we  hear  of  Pauson, 
whose  name  has  already  been  mentioned  as  that  of  a 
painter  whose  conceptions  were  beneath  the  dignity 
of  nature.  The  notices  of  his  picture  of  a  horse  roll- 
ing in  the  sand  would  imply  that  he  had  been  given 
to  efforts  of  bold  foreshortening  in  his  drawing. 
Agatharchos  of  Samos  astonished  people  by  the 
rapidity  of  his  work.  Aristophon,  the  brother  of 
Polygnotos,  has  left  no  impression  on  the  ancient 
records.  But  of  his  son  Aglaophon  we  are  informed 
that  he  painted  two  panels  for  Alcibiades,  to  illustrate 
the  victories  which  his  horses  had  just  gained  in  the 
public  games;  and  these  are  interesting  from  the 
combination  of  ideal  and  real  figures  which  they  con- 
tain. On  the  one  panel  were  personifications  of  the 
Olympian  and  Pythian  games  crowning  Alcibiades ; 
on  the  other  was  a  personification  of  the  Nemean  games 
seated  with  Alcibiades  on  her  knees.  We  must  add 
also  the  name  of  Dionysios  of  Colophon,  who  painted 
men  as  they  were. 

But  the  name  that  presently  came  to  the  front  on 
the  lines  which  Apollodoros  had  laid  down  was  that  of 
Zeuxis  (about  430-390  B.C.).  A  native  of  Heracleia, 
probably  the  town  of  that  name  on  the  Pontus,  and 
trained,  it  is  said,  in  Thasos  amid  the  traditions  of  the 
school  of  Polygnotos,  Zeuxis  appears  to  have  gone  first 
to  Athens,  where  he  may  have  met  Apollodoros  and  seen 
his  new  style.  He  next  established  himself  at  Ephesus, 
which  apparently  had  succeeded  to  the  old  renown  of 
the  neighbouring  Samos  as  a  centre  of  pictorial  activity. 
We  shall  find  others  of  the  great  painters  of  that  and 
subsequent  times  taking  up  their  quarters  in  Ephesus. 
It  was  from  no  patriotic  motive.  Nor  was  it  to  be  near 
their  clients.    Their  works  were  spread  far  and  wide, 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


375 


even  they  themselves  went  long  distances  to  execute 
this  or  that  picture.  It  would  seem  as  if  Ephesus  and 
its  neighbourhood  had  exercised  some  such  attraction 
as  did  Italy  once  on  a  time  on  the  painters  of  Europe. 
But  while  the  desire  to  settle  in  Italy  was  easily 
explained  by  the  presence  of  numerous  examples  of 
the  great  masters,  in  Ephesus  there  is  no  particular 
evidence  of  an  attraction  of  that  kind.  We  can 
only  conceive  that  the  brilliant  atmosphere  of  the 
place,  together  perhaps  with  unusual  facilities  for 
studying  from  the  living  model,  had  drawn  those 
artists  away  from  busier  haunts  of  men  such  as 
Athens. 

But  Zeuxis  was  often  away  from  Ephesus.  At 
one  time  he  is  at  Croton  in  Southern  Italy,  com- 
missioned at  a  heavy  fee  to  execute  paintings  for 
a  temple  of  Hera,  and  when  the  work  apparently  is 
done  we  find  him  proposing  to  paint  of  his  own  will 
a  figure  of  Helena.  As  a  preliminary  step  he  asks 
to  be  shown  the  most  beautiful  young  women  in 
the  town,  and  on  being  taken  to  the  palaestra,  is  told 
that  the  most  beautiful  of  the  youths  whom  he  sees 
there  exercising  have  sisters  still  more  dazzling  in 
form  and  grace.  Of  the  maidens  thus  indicated 
he  was  permitted  to  select  five,  and  to  have  their 
presence  by  him  while  he  worked  out  his  conception 
of  Helena,  the  unequal  beauty  of  one  model  being 
complemented  by  the  others.  When  the  picture 
was  finished  the  artist  wrote  beneath  it,  as  a  modern 
painter  might  write  in  the  pages  of  an  Exhibition 
Catalogue,  those  lines  of  the  Iliad  (iii.  156),  in  which 
the  old  men  of  Troy,  beholding  Helena  on  the  tower, 
conveyed  their  admiration  of  her  loveliness  in  the 
words,  "For  such  a  woman  it  is  no  hardship  for 


376     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


Trojans  and  Achseans  to  have  borne  long  ills."  The 
story  is  told  at  length  by  Cicero  (De  Invent,  ii.  1,  1) 
and  though  it  seems  to  be  only  one  of  the  many  tales 
that  have  surrounded  the  lives  of  great  painters  in 
most  ages,  yet  it  is  quite  possible  that  there  had 
been  in  connection  with  the  painting  of  this  picture 
circumstances  which  easily  allowed  of  their  being 
rounded  off  into  a  tale. 

It  is  conceivable  that  the  original  idea  had  been 
to  surround  Helena  with  her  maids  and  Trojan 
captives,  as  in  the  two  groups  by  Polygnotos,  that 
Zeuxis  had  gone  to  the  palaestra  for  models,  and 
had  finally  decided  on  painting  Helena  alone.  But 
in  another  respect  also  the  conduct  of  Zeuxis  on 
this  occasion  formed  a  precedent  for  modern  times. 
He  placed  the  picture  on  view  and  charged  a  fee 
for  admission.  Otherwise  the  painting  brought 
him  no  gain :  it  had  been  undertaken  as  a  gift  to 
the  people  of  Croton.  It  was  probably  about  this 
time,  while  yet  resident  in  the  south  of  Italy,  that  he 
painted  a  picture  of  Alcmena  and  presented  it  to  the 
town  of  Agrigentum  ;  it  has  been  thought  probable 
that  the  picture  here  called  '  Alcmena  '  was  the  same 
as  that  which  Pliny  proceeds  to  describe  (xxxv.  63) 
more  fully  as  the  'Infant  Hercules  strangling  the 
serpents  in  the  presence  of  his  mother  Alcmena  and 
Amphitryon,'  in  which  case  there  would  be  no  question 
of  the  painter's  skill  in  dealing  with  a  single  figure ;  it 
would  be  a  question  of  a  considerable  group,  because 
we  now  know  from  a  vase  in  the  British  Museum,1  that 
the  sentence  of  Pliny,  which  has  long  been  broken  up 
and  made  to  refer  to  two  pictures,  in  fact  describes  but 
one.  The  vase  exhibits  a  group  of  deities  looking  on 
1  Published  by  me  in  the  '  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies,'  xi.  pi.  6. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


377 


while  the  infant  Hercules  strangles  the  serpents, 
his  mother  Alcmena  trembling  with  fear,  as  Pliny 
says.  The  vase  is  a  direct  illustration  of  the  entire 
sentence  of  Pliny,  and  shows  that  he  was  describing 
one  picture,  not  two.  The  shape  of  the  vase  (a  large 
crater)  and  the  rough  style  of  the  drawing  go  to 
indicate  that  it  had  been  made  in  Southern  Italy 
and  with  a  knowledge  of  the  famous  picture,  or 
of  some  copy  from  it,  if  we  suppose  the  picture  to 
have  been  destroyed  along  with  the  town  of  Agri- 
gentum  shortly  before  B.C.  400.  But  the  vase 
unfortunately  conveys  to  us  none  of  the  qualities  of 
a  great  artist  such  as  we  know  Zeuxis  to  have 
been.  The  most  it  can  prove  is  that  Pliny  may  have 
been  right  when  he  blamed  Zeuxis  for  making  the 
heads  of  his  figures  too  large  (grandior  in  capitibus 
articulisque). 

It  is  true  that  a  picture  consisting  of  so  many 
figures  seems  foreign  to  what  is  otherwise  known  of 
Zeuxis ;  but  an  artist  brought  up  as  he  was  in 
the  traditions  of  Polygnotos,  would  naturally  enough 
have  been  qualified  for  such  a  task  should  occasion 
offer  it. 

An  ancient  writer  whose  judgments  on  matters  of 
art  are  highly  esteemed,  Lucian  ('Zeuxis,'  3),  says 
that  '  Zeuxis  did  not  paint  but  rarely  ordinary  and 
common  subjects  such  as  heroes,  gods  and  battles.  He 
sought  out  some  novel  and  striking  conception  upon 
which  he  bestowed  the  perfection  of  his  skill.  Among 
other  bold  conceptions  he  produced  a  picture  of  a 
"  Female  Centaur  nursing  two  young  Centaurs."  Of 
this  picture  there  is  a  copy  in  Athens  carefully  made, 
the  original  having  perished  in  the  sea  off  Cape  Malea 
when  Sulla  sentit  with  others  to  Italy. '    Lucian  then 


378     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


describes  the  picture  in  detail  from  the  copy  he  saw 
in  Athens.  The  Centauress  was  lying  on  grassy 
ground  with  one  foot  raised.  She  was  holding  up  to 
her  human  breast  one  of  the  two  young  Centaurs,  to 
suckle  it.  The  other  was  busy  sucking  like  a  foal  at 
a  mare.  The  double  nature  of  the  Centaur,  half 
human,  half  equine,  which  in  the  Greek  legends 
passed  as  a  merely  fantastic  creation,  had  suggested 
to  Zeuxis  that  if  he  applied  the  ordinary  laws  of 
life  to  it,  and  imagined  a  Centauress  suckling  her 
young,  the  result  would  be  very  curious  and  striking 
to  a  spectator.  The  result  certainly  was  so.  In  the 
upper  part  of  the  picture  was  the  male  Centaur, 
half  hid  behind  rising  ground.  He  was  smiling  on 
the  group  below  and  holding  up  a  lion  cub  to 
frighten  his  progeny.  Artists  might  judge  of  the 
accuracy  of  the  drawing,  the  skilful  use  of  colours 
and  shadows,  the  proportions  and  the  relations  of 
the  parts  to  the  whole,  but  to  Lucian  it  seemed 
that  Zeuxis  had  earned  the  highest  praise  for  the 
vividness  with  which  the  double  nature  of  Centaurs 
was  portrayed. 

Passing  over  the  less  celebrated  works  of  Zeuxis  we 
may  notice  here  an  ancient  criticism  of  his  style  which 
will  serve  also  as  a  preparation  for  the  next  great 
name  among  Greek  painters,  that  of  Parrhasios. 
Quintilian  (*  Inst.  Orat.'  xii.  10,  4),  comparing  Zeuxis 
with  Parrhasios,  says  that  the  former  discovered  (it 
should  be  6  perfected ')  the  principles  of  light  and 
shadow,  while  the  latter  developed  greater  subtilty  of 
lines.  Zeuxis  depended  more  on  largeness  of  limbs 
and  forms,  while  Parrhasios  defined  everything  so 
exactly  that  he  was  called  the  '  legislator,  the  fact 
being  that  the  types  of  gods  and  heroes  which  he 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


379 


produced  have  been  accepted  by  others  as  if  of 
necessity.' 1  Another  writer  (Pliny, 6  Nat.  Hist.,'  xxxv. 
67),  tells  us  that  Parrhasios  had  carried  off  the  palm 
for  the  fineness  of  his  outlines,  but  was  less  dis- 
tinguished for  his  inner  lines,  and,  as  if  to  demon- 
strate by  a  practical  instance  the  difference  between 
Parrhasios  and  Zeuxis  this  writer  (xxxv.  65)  relates 
a  contest  between  the  two  artists,  in  which  Zeuxis 
painted  a  fruit-piece  so  truthfully  to  nature  that  birds 
flew  towards  it,  while  Parrhasios  painted  a  curtain 
which  even  his  competitor  attempted  to  draw  aside, 
and  thus  confessed  himself  surpassed.  We  need  not 
examine  too  closely  the  outward  form  in  which  this 
tale  has  been  handed  down.  Nor  are  we  in  a  position 
to  appreciate  rightly  those  differences  of  style  which 
the  ancients  readily  perceived  between  Zeuxis  and 
Parrhasios.  The  ancients  knew  also  what  these  artists 
had  in  common ;  and  that  is  just  what  we  do  not  know 
in  any  direct  and  certain  manner.  We  would  rather 
know  what  they  had  in  common  than  their  differences. 
But  so  far  as  we  can  at  present  judge  from  the  above 
criticisms,  we  should  say  that  Zeuxis  was  more  of  a 
colourist,  caring  little  for  outlines,  and  that  Parrhasios 
depended  more  on  the  purity  of  his  drawing  and 
composition. 

Parrhasios,  a  younger  contemporary  of  Zeuxis,  is  said 
to  have  been  born  at  Ephesus,  and  is  usually  described 
as  an  Ephesian  (about  415  B.C.).  But  it  is  probable  that 
he  had  been  of  Athenian  descent.  His  father  Euenor, 
who  was  at  the  same  time  his  instructor  in  the  art  of 
painting,  bears  a  name  which  in  older  times  had  been 
borne  by  a  sculptor  in  Athens,  as  inscriptions  found  on 

1  See  Klein,  '  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,  1888, 
p.  121. 


380     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


the  Acropolis  testify.1  It  is  therefore  possible  that 
Euenor,  the  father  of  Parrhasios,  had  established  him- 
self as  a  painter  in  Ephesus,  that  his  son  was  born 
there  and  retained  a  residence  in  that  city.  Whatever 
rivalry  there  may  have  been  between  Parrhasios  and 
Zeuxis  need  not  imply  a  rivalry  of  two  opposed 
schools.  It  may  only  indicate  the  dilferences  between 
two  individual  artists  working  in  the  same  line.  The 
luxurious  habits  of  Parrhasios  could  have  been  ac- 
quired in  Athens  as  well  as  in  Ephesus. 

In  inventing  new  types  of  gods  and  heroes,  such  as 
other  painters  accepted,  Parrhasios  would  find  a  natural 
scope  for  his  bent  towards  drawing  and  composition. 
The  verses  which  he  is  said  to  have  attached  to  his 
picture  of  Heracles  in  Lindos,  stating  that  the  con- 
ception had  come  to  him  in  a  dream,  can  only  mean 
that  the  type  of  Heracles  here  presented  was  a  novel 
type.  So  also  in  regard  to  a  picture  of  Hermes,  it  is 
charged  against  Parrhasios  that  he  had  taken  himself 
as  his  model.  It  is  said  that  for  a  model  for  his 
'  Prometheus '  he  had  purchased  an  Olynthian  captive 
and  put  him  to  torture ;  but  that  cannot  be  true 
exactly,  because  the  dates  do  not  suit.  Nevertheless 
his  '  Prometheus  '  must  have  been  an  extremely  clever 
study  of  a  man  under  physical  torture  or  the  story 
would  not  have  got  about. 

The  same  love  of  rendering  the  expression  of 
extreme  bodily  pain  is  seen  in  his  6  Philoctetes ;  ' 
while  again  in  his  '  Odysseus  feigning  to  be  insane,' 
yoking  an  ox  with  a  horse  in  his  plough  in  pre- 
sence of  the  Greeks  who  came  to  carry  him  off,  we 

1  <C.  I.  A.,'  iv.,  Nos.  37386,  87,  88.  Klein,  'Arch.  Epigr.  Mit- 
theikmgen  aus  Oesterreich,'  1888,  p.  116,  gives  no  credit  to  the 
statement  that  Parrhasios  was  an  Athenian. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


381 


recognise  a  more  subtle  observation  of  the  emotions 
and  the  strange  possibilities  of  expression  to  which 
they  may  lead.1  The  man  who  could  adequately  paint 
Odysseus,  that  master  of  cunning,  feigning  to  be 
insane,  was  likely  to  try  his  hand  on  even  more  com- 
plicated emotions.  We  are  therefore  not  surprised  to 
read  that  he  chose  as  a  subject  the  Athenian  Demos 
with  its  catalogue  of  vices  and  virtues  all  mingled 
together.  In  what  manner  the  '  many-headed  monster ' 
of  Athens  was  represented  is  unknown,  whether  by 
means  of  a  single  personification  or  in  a  series  of 
figures  like  the  6  Calumny  '  of  Apelles.  In  any  case  it 
was  a  study  of  many  conflicting  emotions.  We  have 
already  said  enough  to  indicate  that  Parrhasios  was  an 
artist  whose  bent  was  towards  the  painting  of  gods 
and  heroes,  who  excelled  in  drawing  and  composition, 
while  retaining  in  a  secondary  degree  the  sense  of 
colour  peculiar  to  his  time,  who  loved  to  render  the 
most  intense  and  the  most  complicated  emotions,  and 
whose  "  works  bridge  over  the  space  between  the  ethos 
of  Polygnotos  and  the  charis  (grace)  of  Apelles  in  the 
history  of  the  Ionian  school  of  painting."  2 

We  approach  now  Apelles  (about  335  B.C.),  still 
keeping  before  our  minds  the  marvellous  atmosphere 
of  Ephesus  with  the  facilities  for  painting  that  had 
grown  up  there.  In  modern  language  Ephesus  was 
the  Eome  of  ancient  painters  in  those  days.  Apelles, 
son  of  Pytheas,  had  been  born  in  Colophon,  but  had 
chosen  Ephesus  as  his  home.   He  had  come  of  a  painter 

1  This  picture  of  Odysseus  has  been  wrongly  assigned  to 
Euphranor  (compare  Overbeck,  '  Schriftquellen,'  Nos.  1708  and 
1790),  but  Klein  (Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,' 
1888,  p.  126)  and  others  have  rescued  it  as  a  picture  by  Parrhasios. 

2  Klein,  'Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,'  1888, 
p.  127, 


382     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


family  and  had  studied  first  in  Ephesus,  subsequently 
under  Pamphilos,  of  whom  mention  has  yet  to  be 
made.  For  the  present  it  may  be  enough  to  say  that 
this  Pamphilos  was  a  native  of  the  northern  town  of 
Amphipolis,  and  that  he  had  probably  brought  thence 
when  he  settled  in  Sikyon  the  traditions  of  the  old 
school  of  northern  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  which 
Polygnotos  had  developed  and  rendered  acceptable  in 
the  more  active  centres  of  Greece,  such  as  Athens. 
But  Pamphilos  on  settling  in  Sikyon  appears  to  have 
taken  up  a  new  process  of  painting,  an  encaustic 
process  to  which  we  shall  return.  Meantime  it  would 
seem  as  if  Apelles  had  left  Ephesus  to  join  Pamphilos 
in  Sikyon,  and  to  learn  what  might  be  useful  in  the 
new  art.  The  result  seems  to  have  been  that  instead 
of  committing  himself  to  the  new  process  of  encaustic, 
Apelles  went  back  to  the  old  and  traditional  fresco 
painting,  perceiving  that  in  it  also  there  were  new 
methods  to  be  discovered  and  worked  out. 

We  possess  an  ancient  description  of  his  picture  of 
'  Calumny '  (Lucian,  '  Calumn.,'  4).  On  the  right  sits 
a  man  with  long  ears  like  those  of  Midas,  holding  out 
his  hand  towards  '  Calumny,'  who  approaches  him. 
Beside  him  stand  two  women  in  whom  '  Ignorance '  and 
'  Suspicion  '  are  personified.  '  Calumny '  herself  is  a 
woman  of  surpassing  beauty,  but  here  she  is  burning 
with  anger  and  agitated  like  one  who  cannot  control 
her  rage  and  indignation.  In  her  left  hand  is  a 
flaming  torch ;  with  her  right  she  drags  by  the  hair  a 
boy  who  stretches  his  hands  to  heaven  and  calls  the 
gods  to  witness.  Then  comes  a  man,  pale  and  thin, 
with  the  cadaverous  look  of  one  wasted  by  long  disease. 
That  is  6  Envy,'  and  next  appear  two  more  women 
caressing,  decking  and  adorning  i  Calumny.'  They 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


383 


are  called  6  Cunning '  and  '  Deceit.'  Behind  them 
follows,  poorly  clad  in  black  and  tattered,  '  Penitence ' 
by  name  ;  she  weeps  and  looks  back  ashamed  towards 
'  Truth/  who  follows  her. 

Except  for  this  figure  of  6  Penitence'  and  the 
boy  imploring  heaven,  both  of  which  are  emotional 
enough,  the  picture  of  Apelles  would  remind  us 
of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  or  more  appropriately 
to  the  present  occasion,  a  little-known  book,  the 
6  Characters  '  of  Theophrastos.  Theophrastos,  a  pupil 
of  Aristotle,  as  he  was,  would  be  more  or  less  a 
contemporary  of  Apelles,  and  between  them  they 
would  represent  the  general  taste  of  the  times  for  the 
observation  of  character.  His  genius  in  the  render- 
ing of  character  and  expression  naturally  led  Apelles 
on  to  portraiture.  That,  indeed,  was  a  tendency  of  the 
time.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  there  would  have  been 
no  need  of  an  edict  of  Alexander  the  Great,  to  the 
effect  that  none  but  Apelles  was  to  be  allowed  to  paint 
that  monarch's  portrait. 

We  hear  of  several  portraits  of  Alexander  and 
the  generals  who  surrounded  him  by  Apelles.  But 
in  most  cases  it  was  a  portrait  with  striking 
accessories — Alexander  holding  a  thunderbolt,  there- 
fore in  the  character  of  Zeus — Alexander  with 
the  Dioscuri  and  Victory — Alexander  leading  in 
triumph  the  god  of  war — Alexander  on  horseback — 
Neoptolemos  on  horseback  charging  the  Persians — 
Antigonos  armed  and  standing  beside  his  horse — and 
another  picture  of  Antigonos  seated  on  horseback, 
which  was  the  more  admired  of  the  two.  His  own 
portrait  may  have  been  an  exception.  But  his  rule 
was  clearly  to  combine  with  his  portraits  such 
accessories  as  the  traditions  of  art  furnished  him  with. 


384     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCH^EOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


The  time  had  not  come  when  a  mere  bust  or  face 
would  be  appreciated.  What  was  wanted  alike  by  his 
own  training  and  the  taste  of  the  day  was  a  subject  in 
which  some  particular  individual  was  made  to  figure. 
Among  other  accessories  the  horse  came  ready  to  his 
hand.  Its  forms  and  movements  had  long  fascinated 
artists  of  every  description  ;  witness  the  Parthenon 
frieze.  So  that  by  the  time  of  Apelles  there  was 
probably  no  action  of  the  horse  that  had  not  been 
rendered  familiar  and  acceptable  as  a  thing  of  ideal 
beauty.  The  horse  of  Alexander  or  of  Antigonos, 
if  rendered  in  that  traditional  manner,  would  at  once 
place  the  picture  on  ideal  ground.  And  we  may  be 
sure  that  Apelles  so  rendered  it,  whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  anecdote  that  the  horse  of  Alexander  had 
recognised  itself  in  a  picture  more  readily  than  did  its 
master. 

But  the  best  proof  that  his  horses  were  painted 
on  the  older  ideal  lines  is  to  be  found  in  an  ancient 
description  which  has  survived 1  of  a  picture  of  his 
representing  a  war-horse  with  its  rider,  probably  one 
of  those  portrait  groups  already  mentioned.  With 
its  head  thrown  up  and  its  forelegs  pawing  the  air, 
the  rider  keeping  him  under  control,  the  description 
of  this  horse  answers  perfectly  to  the  ideals  which  we 
still  possess  in  Greek  sculpture.  We  may  add  that  it 
was  in  connection  with  this  picture  that  the  story  was 
told  of  how  Apelles,  failing  to  render  the  foam  at  the 
horse's  mouth,  threw  at  it  in  despair  the  sponge  with 
which  he  had  been  wiping  out  his  unsatisfactory 
efforts,  when,  behold,  the  sponge  just  hit  the  right 
place  and  left  exactly  the  appearance  of  foam  which 
the  painter  had  been  seeking.  Whereupon  he  finished 
1  Dio  Chrysostom,  '  Orat.,'  63,  4. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


385 


the  picture  not  by  the  methods  of  art,  but  in  the 
manner  of  chance,  as  if  he  had  been  reminded  of  the 
line  of  the  poet  Agathon,  quoted  by  Aristotle  ('  Nic. 
Eth.,'  vi.  4),  to  the  effect  that  '  art  loved  chance  and 
chance  loved  art.' 1 

Another  instance  of  how  Apelles  employed  wisely 
the  traditions  in  which  he  had  been  trained  is  to  be 
gathered  from  the  most  famous  of  his  pictures,  the 
Aphrodite  Anadyomene  (rising  from  the  sea)  at  Cos. 
That  subject  was  as  old  at  least  as  the  time  of  Pheidias, 
who  sculptured  it  on  the  base  of  his  statue  of  Zeus  at 
Olympia.  But  that  was  in  the  midst  of  an  extensive 
group.  Apelles  chose  only  the  central  figure  of  Aphro- 
dite and  apparently  gave  it  quite  a  new  rendering. 
All  the  same,  he  had  there  a  certain  standard  before 
him,  and  that  counted  for  much.  He  might  depart 
from  it  in  every  particular  and  yet  it  would  always 
save  him  from  error.  At  all  events  the  picture  was 
widely  celebrated  in  antiquity  in  verse  and  prose. 
The  goddess  was  represented  in  the  act  of  pressing 
the  water  from  her  wet  hair,  possibly  in  the  attitude 
familiar  in  a  number  of  ancient  bronze  statuettes.  The 
charm  of  the  figure,  however,  was  not  in  the  attitude, 
but  in  the  beauty  of  form  and  colouring,  and  it  would 
be  hopeless  to  try  to  realize  these  qualities  from  any- 
thing that  has  survived  from  antiquity.  It  is  said 
that  Apelles  later  in  life  had  set  himself  to  produce  a 
still  finer  Aphrodite  of  the  same  type,  but  that  he  had 
died  leaving  the  lower  part  of  the  picture  unfinished. 
But  the  statements  to  this  effect  are  at  variance  with 
others  which  report  a  decay  of  the  lower  part  of  the 
original  picture,  which  no  one  could  be  found  able 
to  restore.     There  must  be  a  mistake  somewhere. 


2  o 


386      HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHJEOLOGY.  [Chap.  IX. 


Possibly  there  is  truth  in  the  report  that  the  original 
picture  had  suffered  after  its  removal  to  Rome,  in 
which  case  the  painting  of  a  second  picture  by 
Apelles  may  have  been  invented  by  some  one  un- 
conscious of  the  anachronism. 

The  praises  of  the  Aphrodite  Anadyomene  point  less 
to  a  great  conception,  than  to  excellence  of  drawing 
and  colouring.  We  read  that  Apelles  made  a  special 
study  of  drawing,  allowing  no  day  to  pass  without 
practice  in  it.  Experience  teaches  us  how  captivating 
refined  drawing  may  be  when  joined  to  a  delicate 
sense  of  flesh-colouring.  Apparently  these  were  the 
limits  of  Apelles,  and  possibly  the  ancient  praises  that 
were  sung  of  him  owed  much  of  their  origin  to  a 
general  appreciation  of  those  qualities  as  opposed  to 
paintings  which  involved  a  wider  range  of  conception. 

As  between  Zeuxis  and  Parrhasios,  so  between 
Apelles  and  Protogenes  (about  325  B.C.)  we  have  again 
a  personal  acquaintance  and  a  personal  contest  in  art. 
In  this  instance  the  contest  is  reported  to  have  been 
merely  as  to  who  could  draw  the  finest  lines.  But 
probably  the  story  is  nothing  more  than  a  confirmation 
of  the  assiduity  of  Apelles  in  the  practice  of  drawing, 
with  the  addition  that  Protogenes  even  excelled  him 
in  that  branch  of  art.  Protogenes  was  a  native  of 
Asia  Minor,  having  been  born  at  Caunos  in  Caria,  a 
small  place  near  and  subject  to  the  island  of  Ehodes. 
His  home  was  in  the  town  of  Ehodes,  not,  however,  to 
the  exclusion  of  his  executing  works  elsewhere.  In 
Athens,  apparently  late  in  life,  he  painted  a  picture 
of  the  two  state  ships  Paralos  and  Ammonias,  in- 
troducing as  accessories  on  a  small  scale  figures  of 
war-ships.  It  is  commonly  supposed  that  the  two 
state  ships  were  represented  by  personifications,  to 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


387 


which  the  smaller  accessory  ships  served  as  exponents. 
Had  the  Paralos  and  Ammonias  been  painted  as 
actual  ships  the  smaller  vessels  would  no  longer  have 
been  parerga,  as  they  were  called,  but  would  have  been 
an  essential  part  of  the  subject. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  his  introduction  of  these  smaller 
ships  into  the  picture  was  the  occasion  of  a  report  that 
Protogenes  had  spent  a  great  part  of  his  life  in  actually 
painting  ships — not  pictures  of  ships,  but  ships  them- 
selves. The  report  may  have  been  absolutely  ground- 
less ;  nor  does  it  concern  us  here  that  his  early  life  was 
spent  in  poverty,  if  such  was  the  case.  But  it  is 
possible  that  Pliny  ('Nat.  Hist.,'  xxxv.  101),  in  rela- 
ting this  account  of  the  life  of  Protogenes  may  have 
got  confused  among  his  authorities.  Later  on  (xxxv. 
149),  in  speaking  of  the  methods  of  encaustic  painting, 
he  cites  a  method  employed  in  painting  ships  in 
which  a  brush  was  used  to  lay  on  the  colours,  these 
having  been  resolved  in  wax  by  means  of  heat.  It  is 
conceivable  that  Protogenes  had  learned  this  method 
of  encaustic  painting  by  the  aid  of  a  brush  while 
actually  employed  on  the  painting  of  ships,  and  had 
afterwards  set  himself  to  adapt  this  method  to  the 
highest  forms  of  art.  On  that  view  we  could 
understand  his  early  life  being  referred  to  in  con- 
nection with  the  picture  at  Athens.  The  necessary 
consequence,  however,  of  this  view  would  be  that 
Protogenes  must  be  ranked,  not  among  the  fresco,  but 
among  the  encaustic  painters,  to  whom  as  a  class  we 
must  presently  proceed.  Indeed,  of  no  other  process 
but  that  of  encaustic,  it  seems  to  us,  could  it  be 
said,  as  i  Pliny  (xxxv.  102)  says,  of  the  most  famous 
picture  by  Protogenes — the  Ialysos — that  the  painter 
had  laid  on  his  colour  in  four  thicknesses,  so  that  if 

2  o  2 


388      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.  [Chap.  IX. 


the  uppermost  colour  decayed,  the  next  lower  would 
take  its   place.    Whether  the   result  would  have 
proved  so  in  fact  we  are  not  able  to  say;  but  it  is 
certain  that  in  encaustic  painting  it  was  necessary 
to  add  layer  above  layer  of  colour. 1    The  extreme 
laboriousness  of  Protogenes  would  be  accounted  for  by 
assuming  an  encaustic  process.    He  spent  seven  years 
on  his  figure  of  Ialysos.    Universal  praise  attended 
the  immense  labour  he  had  bestowed  on  this  one 
figure  with  no  accessory  apparently  but  a  dog.  The 
effect  of  his  painstaking  seems  also  to  have  been  a 
vivid  realization  of  the  subject.    He  painted  a  picture 
of  a  Satyr   leaning  on  a  pillar  on  which   was  a 
partridge  so  true  to  nature  as  to  charm  the  rearers  of 
partridges.     Even  these  birds  themselves  fluttered 
towards  the  picture !    No  less  was  to  be  expected  of 
an  encaustic  painting,  laboriously  minute  and  probably 
on  a  small  scale.   It  remains  only  to  add  that  Apelles, 
as  we  have   seen,  had  studied  for  a  time  under 
Pamphilos  at  Sikyon,  one  of  the  leaders   of  the 
encaustic  school.    The  probability  is  that  Protogenes 
had  gone  througn   some   similar   course   and  had 
adhered  to  its  methods. 

We  are  thus  led  to  the  encaustic  school  of  paint- 
ing in  Greece,  with  its  headquarters  in  Sikyon,  and 
turning  to  Pliny  we  find  that  he  devotes  a  section  of 
his  book  ('Natural  History,'  xxxv.  122-149)  to  this 
subject.  But  he  begins  in  a  confused  way  by  mixing 
up  painters  and  sculptors.  Moreover  he  hardly 
pretends  to  trace  the  art  from  its  origin.  He  allows 
that  this  branch  of  painting  had  been  practised  more 
or  less  for  a  long  time.    Nevertheless  he  is  content  to 

*  See  Otto  Donner,  '  Ant.  Wandmalerei,'  p.  11  (from  Helbig's 
<  AVandegemalde  Campaniens '). 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


389 


begin  with  Pamphilos,  under  whom  Apelles  had  studied 
at  Sikyon.  We  must  endeavour  to  go  back  one  or 
two  generations  before  then.  Pliny  himself  gives  the 
clue.  He  had  previously  (xxxv.  75)  told  us  that 
Pamphilos  had  been  instructed  in  the  art  by  Eupompos. 
That  takes  us  one  generation  back.  In  the  same 
sentence  he  mentions,  apparently  as  a  contemporary, 
Aristeides,  meaning  no  doubt  the  same  Aristeides 
whom  he  afterwards  cites  as  the  inventor  of  encaustic 
painting.  We  are  told  that  Aristeides  had  learned 
his  art  from  Euxenidas.  That  would  be  the  second 
generation  back  from  Pamphilos.  This  Euxenidas 
was,  he  says,  a  contemporary  of  the  great  painter 
Timanthes,  who,  like  the  others  just  mentioned, 
appears  to  have  been  established  in  Sikyon.  Pliny 
has  immediately  before  described  a  small  but  very 
minute  picture  by  Timanthes  which  could  hardly 
have  been  executed  but  in  encaustic.  It  represented 
a  Cyclops  with  diminutive  Satyrs  measuring  the 
length  of  his  finger  by  means  of  a  thyrsus. 

At  all  events  Pliny  soon  goes  on  to  describe  one 
of  the  processes  of  encaustic — that  of  painting  on 
boxwood  (or  ivory),  which  became  so  fashionable  in 
Greece  as  to  form  part  of  a  liberal  education 
among  the  sons  of  wealthy  persons.  Timanthes 
ought  therefore  to  be  included  among  the  encaustic 
painters,1  not  by  any  means  as  one  who  had  prac- 
tised the  art  regularly,  but  as  occasionally  having* 
recourse  to  that  process.  In  this  respect  he  may 
be  classed  with  Protogenes  and  doubtless  with  others 

1  Klein,  6  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,'  1887,  p. 
212.  To  avoid  repetition  we  may  here  acknowledge  our  indebted- 
ness to  this  article  of  Prof.  Klein's  for  a  number  of  interesting 
suggestions  and  newly-ascertained  facts. 


390      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.  [Chap.  IX. 


of  those  who  are  specially  mentioned  as  encaustic 
painters. 

Meantime  it  is  only  fair  to  stop  here  to  notice  the 
picture  for  which  Timanthes  was  greatly  famed  in 
antiquity.  His  '  Sacrifice  of  Iphigeneia'  which  ancient 
writers  admired  for  the  expression  of  sorrow  on  the  faces 
of  the  persons  present — Calchas,  Odysseus,  Menelaos, 
and  in  particular  for  the  climax  of  sorrow  which  they 
recognised  in  Agamemnon,  the  father  of  the  victim, 
with  his  face  concealed  from  view.  Among  the 
paintings  of  Pompeii  that  subject  has  survived  in  a 
picture,  which  is  believed  to  have  been  copied  from 
the  original  of  Timanthes.  The  Pompeian  fresco 
is  probably  far  behind  the  original,  and  yet  it 
obviously  retains  much  of  the  qualities  of  a  great 
conception.1  The  only  element  in  it  that  we  would 
venture  to  question  is  the  group  in  which  Iphigeneia 
is  being  carried  to  the  altar,  while  the  deer  which  is 
to  be  her  substitute  is  seen  above  in  the  sky.  We 
question  this  because  on  a  fine  vase  in  the  British 
Museum  the  subject  is  conceived  more  poetically. 
We  there  see  Iphigeneia  standing  ready  for  the 
sacrifice,  but  at  her  farther  side  is  a  deer  standing  on 
its  hind-legs,  so  as  to  be  almost  concealed  from  our 
view  by  the  figure  of  Iphigeneia.  She  in  fact  is 
represented  as  coalescing  with  the  deer,  her  form 
about  to  vanish  into  its  form.  We  are  tempted  to 
think  that  a  great  painter  would  have  preferred  this 
conception. 

We  may  pass  over  the  controversy  as  to  Aristeides 
the  reported  inventor  of  encaustic  painting — whether 

1  For  engraving  see  Miiller's  '  Denkmaler,'  PI.  44,  No.  206 ;  from  the 
'Casa  del  Poeta.'  Compare  Helbig,  '  Wandgemalde  Campaniens,' 
No.  1304. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


391 


there  had  been  but  one  painter  of  that  name  or 
two,  the  one  being  grandson  of  the  other,  and  the 
intermediary  being  Nicomachos,  also  an  encaustic 
painter,  who  would  thus  have  been  son  to  the  first 
Aristeides  and  father  to  the  second.1  Nor  indeed  is 
there  much  to  be  made  out  of  the  records  of  the  works 
ascribed  to  Aristeides — whether  one  or  two  of  the 
name.  The  only  important  remark  in  the  records  is 
to  the  effect  that  Aristeides  w7as  celebrated  for  the 
expression  of  character  (ethos)  in  his  figures.  An 
observation  which  so  directly  recalls  the  style  of 
Polygnotos  would  suggest  that  the  Aristeides  of 
whom  it  is  used  had  lived  at  a  time  when  tho 
traditions  of  Polygnotos  had  not  yet  been  wholly 
abandoned.  He  may  have  been  a  contemporary  of 
Zeuxis  and  Parrhasios. 

The  conspicuous  painters  of  the  encaustic  school  in 
Sikyon  were  Eupompos,  Pamphilos  with  his  pupil 
Pausias,  and  he  again  with  his  pupils  Aristolaos  and 
Nicophanes,  Euphranor  with  his  pupil  Antidotos, 
Nikias  pupil  of  Antidotos,  Athenion,  Heracleides, 
Timomachos  and  Socrates.  This  class  of  painting- 
was  called  Chrestographia,  and  if  the  exact  significance 
of  the  word  had  not  been  lost,  we  should  perhaps  have 
had  a  useful  clue.  As  it  is,  we  can  only  suppose  that 
this  word  had  been  employed  as  a  general  term  to 
express  what  we  are  otherwise  told  of  one  branch  of 
the  art,  that  of  painting  on  boxwood,  that  it  had 
become  under  the  influence  of  Pamphilos  a  fashion- 
able occupation.  That  is  to  say,  Chrestographia  was 
equivalent  to  a  fashionable  art,  having  its  special 
masters  who  excelled  in  it,  the  enormous  fees  which 

1  Klein,  '  Arch.  Epigr.  Mittheilungen  aus  Oesterreich,5  1887, 
p.  227. 


392     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


Pamphilos  exacted  from  his  pupils  confirming  this 
view.  But  at  the  best  this  only  explains  one  feature 
of  the  art.  It  conveys  no  impression  of  the  style  of 
the  painters  whose  names  we  have  just  mentioned. 
On  the  contrary,  the  idea  we  form  of  the  fashionable 
painting  on  boxwood  is  an  idea  of  bright  colours  such 
as  we  find  on  miniatures;  whereas  the  records  of 
those  painters  speak  repeatedly  of  their  austere  and 
sombre  colours,  so  much  so  that  we  must  accept  that 
as  their  prevalent  character.  Besides  we  are  repeatedly 
told  of  this  or  that  leader  in  the  encaustic  school,  that 
he  painted  also  large  pictures,  the  intention  of  the 
writer  being  to  contrast  those  large  pictures  with  the 
smaller  works  on  ivory  and  such-like  from  the  same 
hand. 

Of  these  leaders  the  chief  were  Pamphilos,  Pausias, 
and  Euphranor.  In  regard  to  Pausias,  a  technical 
peculiarity  is  mentioned  in  connection  with  a  large 
picture  of  his  representing  the  sacrifice  of  an  ox.  He 
painted  the  ox  wholly  of  a  black  colour  and  managed 
his  shadows  in  such  a  way  that  the  projecting  parts 
of  the  ox  appeared  in  even  colour  (in  aequo),  while 
the  retreating  parts  appeared  in  broken  colour  (in 
confracto),  whereas  other  painters  would  have  brought 
out  the  projecting  parts  with  high  lights  and  left 
the  retreating  parts  black.  That  is  to  say,  Pausias 
was  the  first  to  employ  one  colour  in  various  shades,  so 
as  yet  to  secure  full  roundness  in  the  form  of  his  ox. 
By  a  similar  method  he  painted  a  figure  of  Methe,  a 
woman  drinking  from  a  glass  bowl,  the  effect  being 
that  the  woman's  face  was  seen  through  the  glass 
bowl.  He  is  said  to  have  been  employed  to  repaint 
certain  wall-paintings  by  Polygnotos  at  Thespige,  but 
from  inexperience  in  fresco  had  not  succeeded  in 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


393 


proportion  to  his  fame.  He  was  the  first  to  utilize 
the  encaustic  process  for  the  interiors  of  rooms  and 
for  such  parts  of  buildings  (lacunaria)  as  were 
naturally  in  deep  shadow.  In  these  cases  he  must 
have  employed  bright  colours. 

After  Pausias  the  fame  of  the  Sikyonian  school  was 
upheld  by  Euphranor  above  all  others.  His  skill  was 
by  no  means  confined  to  painting.  He  excelled  in 
modelling  in  terra-cotta,  and  in  the  sculpture  of 
marble.  We  may  conclude  that  in  painting  also  he 
practised  more  methods  than  one.  His  connection 
with  the  encaustic  process  seems  clear ;  but  equally 
his  paintings  on  the  Stoa  Basileios  at  Athens  may 
have  been  executed  in  fresco.  These  paintings  repre- 
sented (1)  A  group  of  the  twelve  gods ;  (2)  Theseus 
attended  by  Democracy  and  Demos  ;  (3)  The  battle  of 
cavalry  at  Mantinea,  in  which  were  conspicuous  Gryllos, 
the  son  of  Xenophon,  on  the  side  of  the  Athenians, 
and  Epaminondas  on  the  side  of  the  Boeotians.  The 
description  of  this  battle  picture  recalls  the  old 
fiescoes  of  Polygnotos,  Micon,  and  Pamenos  in  Athens. 
It  would  seem  as  if  the  bent  of  Euphranor's  genius 
had  been  in  the  direction  of  these  old  masters,  though 
his  methods  would  have  much  that  was  new.  So, 
again,  in  his  picture  of  Theseus,  he  himself  is  said  to 
have  made  a  comparison  between  it  and  a  painting  by 
Parrhasios,  the  difference  pointed  out  being  one  of 
colour.  What  the  pictures  possessed  in  common  we 
are  left  to  imagine  from  the  fact  that  both  painters 
had  chosen  to  represent  a  personification  of  the 
Demos.  In  that  Parrhasios  had  furnished  a  model 
for  Euphranor.  The  group  of  the  twelve  gods  had 
been  long  familiar  in  sculpture  in  relief,  and  there 
also  it  is  possible  that  the  characteristic  of  Euphranor 


394      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.  [Chap.  IX. 


had  been  one  of  technical  method  to  a  considerable 
extent.  At  all  events  we  can  best  understand  his 
being  called  to  Athens  for  this  public  work  by 
assuming  that  his  natural  inclination  had  been  to 
work  on  the  old  lines  so  far  as  general  conception  was 
concerned. 

It  remains  now  to  describe  the  process  of  encaustic 
painting,  to  which  we  have  been  referring  as  the 
principal  feature  of  the  school  of  Sikyon.  After  that 
we  shall  proceed  to  the  ancient  fresco-painting  of 
Italy ;  in  particular  to  the  remains  of  it  in  Pompeii 
and  Rome. 

The  ancient  authority  on  encaustic  painting  consists 
of  the  following  passages  in  Pliny  (xxxv.  122,  148, 
149). 

1.  Ceris  pingere  ac  picturam  inurere  quis  primus 
excogitaverit  non  constat. 

2.  Laia  Cyzicena  .  .  .  Romge  et  penicillo  pinxit 
et  cestro  in  ebore  imagines  mulierum  maxime  et 
Neapoli  anum  in  grandi  tabula. 

3.  Encausto  pingendi  duo  fuisse  antiquitus  genera 
constat :  cera  et  in  ebore  cestro  id  est  vinculo,  donee 
classes  pingi  coepere.  Hoc  tertium  accessit,  resolutis 
igni  ceris  penicillo  utendi  quae  pictura  in  navibus  nec 
sole  nec  sale  ventisque  corrumpitur. 

The  first  of  these  passages  speaks  of  the  beginning 
of  the  art  of  "  painting  with  wax  "  (as  a  vehicle)  "  and 
then  burning  in  the  picture."  The  second  mentions  a 
lady  artist  in  Koine  who  "  painted  figures  of  women  " 
in  two  ways,  "  with  the  brush  and  with  the  cestrum  on 
ivory  "  (compare  Fig.  116).  The  third  passage  sums  up 
by  saying  "  that  there  had  been  in  antiquity  two  pro- 
cesses of  encaustic  painting,  the  one  with  wax  "  as  a 
vehicle,  "  the  other  with  the  cestrum  on  ivory,  until 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


395 


ships  came  to  be  painted,  when  a  third  process  was 
added,  that  of  using  a  brush  with  colours  melted  in 
wax  over  fire."  The  difficulty  of  interpretation  turns 
on  the  phrase  "  painting  with  the  cestrum  on  ivory." 
Pliny  explains  the  word  cestrum,  by  another  word,  vin- 
culum, which  means  a  sharp,  pointed  instrument,  just 
such  an  instrument  as  would  be  very  useful  in  drawing 
in  outlines  on  ivory.    If  we  suppose  him  to  mean 


Fig.  116.    Pompeian  fresco.    Lady  copying  a  statue. 


that  this  sharp,  pointed  instrument  was  employed  in 
painting  on  ivory  as  an  accessory  to  the  brush — as  a 
means  of  putting  in  the  outlines  of  a  figure  or  group 
previous  to  the  laying  on  of  the  colour,  the  question 
which  has  produced  so  much  controversy  would  be 
plainly  answered.  In  the  British  Museum  is  a  thin, 
small  panel  of  ivory,  on  which  is  drawn  very  finely  a 
figure  of  a  Nymph  crouching  before  a  fountain,  while 


396    HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


a  Satyr  looks  over  a  rock  at  her,  and  pulls  a  piece  of 
her  drapery  (Fig.  117).  The  drawing  has  been  incised 
with  a  fine  tool  such  as  an  engraver  would  now  use. 
While  most  of  the  surface  has  become  green  with 
age,  the  pool  of  water,  the  lion's  head,  and  parts  of 
the  drapery  retain  the  original  white  colour  of  the 
ivory,  showing  that  they  had  been  protected  by 


Fig.  117.    Incised  design  on  ivory.    Brit.  Mus. 


colouring  substance.  Apparently  the  rest  of  the 
design  had  not  been  coloured,  as  it  may  conceivably 
have  been  in  other  designs  on  ivory.  The  date  of 
this  ivory  would  correspond  with  the  most  flourishing 
period  of  the  encaustic  school.  On  one  at  least  of 
the  archaic  statues  found  of  late  years  on  the  Acropolis 
of  Athens,  the  pattern  forming  a  race  of  chariots  has 
incised  outlines  within  which  the  colours  now  faded 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


397 


had  been  kept ;  but  whether  the  process  in  this  in- 
stance was  the  same  as  what  in  later  times  was  called 
encaustic  on  marble,  remains  to  be  proved. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  principal  passage 
quoted  above  (3)  Pliny  speaks  of  the  use  of  a  brush 
only  in  connection  with  the  painting  of  ships,  where, 
obviously,  a  large  brush  was  required.  But  it  does 
not  follow  that  he  excluded  the  use  of  the  brush  in 
the  other  methods  which  he  mentions.  In  connection 
with  fresco-painting,  where  large  surfaces  had  to  be 
covered,  he  repeatedly  speaks  of  the  "glory  of  the 
brush,"  and  it  is  probable  that  in  his  mind  the  brush 
was  generally  supposed  to  be  large  and  used  for  large 
surfaces.  That,  however,  does  not  imply  that  it  was 
not  employed  also  for  small  pictures  on  ivory  or  wood 
panels.  A  highly-cultivated  German  painter  (Mr. 
Donner)  who  has  investigated  the  subject  with  the  aid 
of  practical  experiments,  has  arrived  at  an  opposite 
conclusion.  But  before  considering  his  arguments 
we  may  take  note  of  the  series  of  paintings  on  panels 
which  have  been  discovered  in  Egypt  in  the  Fayum, 
confining  ourselves  to  those  that  were  found  by  Mr. 
Flinders  Petrie,  with  his  remarks  on  the  technical 
methods  employed  on  them. 

Mr.  Flinders  Petrie  ('  Hawara,'  &c,  p.  18)  says,  "  So 
far  as  I  have  examined  the  portraits  and  discussed 
the  methods  with  various  artists  whose  practical  expe- 
rience is  of  great  value,  I  see  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  any  process  was  needful  beyond  the  following : 
The  colours  in  powder  were  ground  in  thoroughly 
with  the  wax  (which  may  have  been  bleached  by 
heating  it  to  boiling-point,  as  I  have  found),  and 
they  were  then  placed  out  in  the  sunshine  when 
required,  so  as  to  fuse  them,  or  a  hot-water  bath  may 


398      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.  [Chap.  IX 

have  been  used  in  cooler  weather.  The  wooden  panel 
was  of  cedar  usually,  sometimes  of  pine-wood,  and 
about  y1^  inch  thick,  or  occasionally  as  much  as 
|  inch;  it  was  about  9  +  17  inches  in  size.  On  this 
was  laid  a  priming  of  distemper;  then  a  grounding 
varied  in  tint,  lead  colour  for  the  background,  and 
draperies  and  flesh  colour  for  the  face ;  and  then  the 
surface  colour  was  worked  on,  sometimes  in  a  pasty 
state,  more  usually  creamy  and  free  flowing.  These 
details  are  shown  by  an  unfinished  attempt  on  a 
panel,  which  was  afterwards  turned  and  re-used,  now 
at  South  Kensington.  The  broad  surfaces  of  flesh 
were  often  laid  on  in  thick  creamy  colour,  with 
zigzag  strokes  of  the  brush,  about  J  inch  apart,  just 
joining  up  and  uniting  in  an  almost  smooth  surface ; 
the  draperies  were  usually  laid  on  freely  in  very 
flowing  colour  with  long  strokes  of  a  full  brush.  .  .  • 
With  the  absolute  certainty  of  the  brush  and  the 
hard  point  being  the  principal  tools,  there  really 
seems  no  clear  instance,  even  in  the  jewellery  on  the 
thickest  impasto,  to  prove  that  the  palette-knife  was 
used  ;  and  though  I  should  be  loth  to  deny  it,  yet 
the  onus  probandi  certainly  lies  on  those  who  would 
prove  three  instruments  to  have  been  used  instead  of 
twro." 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  these  panel 
paintings  from  the  Fayum  in  Egypt  are  of  a  late 
period,  the  2nd  and  3rd  cent,  a.d.,  and  that  at  the 
best  they  are  very  rude  in  execution  compared  with 
what  the  encaustic  painting  of  Greece  must  have  been 
in  the  older  days,  considering  the  praise  it  met  with 
from  writers  whose  statements  in  regard  to  other 
branches  of  art  we  have  the  means  of  controlling. 
Tn  the  older  and  better  times  we  must  expect  more 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


399 


refined  methods  to  have  been  in  use.  In  any  case 
Mr.  Petrie's  pictures  do  not  touch  the  question  of 
painting  on  ivory  with  the  aid  of  the  oestrum. 
The  question  that  remains  is,  how  and  to  what 
extent  the  cestrum  was  employed  with  wax  on  wood 
tablets.  The  argument  of  Mr.  Donner  is  that  tho 
cestrum  was  a  tool  in  the  form  of  a  small  elongated 
spoon,  the  handle  ending  in  a  sharp  point,  that  it  was 
used  to  lay  on  and  manipulate  the  colours,  much  as  a 
palette  knife  is  now  used,  and  that  its  sharp  end  was 
employed  to  sketch  in  the  design.  So  also  MM.  Cros 
and  Henry  1  accept  this  form  of  the  cestrum,  and 
interpret  the  passage  of  Pliny  to  mean  that  the  cestrum 
was  used  both  in  painting  on  ivory,  and  on  wood  with 
a  vehicle  of  wax.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the 
ancient  implements  of  painting  found  in  1847  at 
St.  Medard  cles  Pres,  which  MM.  Cros  and  Henry 
illustrate  (pp.  30-31),  with  the  implements  in  use  in 
modern  times,  which  they  give  on  p.  81.  But  let  us 
turn  now  to  Mr.  Donner. 

Referring  to  the  passage  of  Pliny  quoted  above  (3), 
Donner 2  proceeds  : — 

The  third  method,  that  which  was  employed  in  the 
painting  of  ships,  is  quite  clearly  described.  The  wax, 
to  which  colouring  powder  is  added,  was  dissolved  over 
the  fire  and  applied  wdth  the  brush.  What  is  here  meant 
is  rather  a  coating  of  colour  than  painting  proper.  The 
rapid  cooling  of  the  wax  would  render,  especially  on  larger 
surfaces,  details  of  execution  impossible ;  decorations  and 
even  figures  kept  in  simple  local  colours,  such  as  may  be 
seen  to-day  on  Sicilian  boats,  could  be  produced  in  this 

1  1  L'Encaustique  et  les  autres  Procedes  de  Peinture  chez  les 
Anciens,'  (Paris,  1884),  p.  11.  See  also  p.  42  for  encaustic  on 
ivory,  and  p.  52  for  encaustic  on  marble  statues. 

2  Introduction  to  Helbig's  *  Wandgemalde  Campaniens/  p.  11. 


400      HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.  [Chap.  IX. 


way.  When  the  painting  was  finished  the  colours  were 
again  fused  by  means  of  a  pan  of  burning  coal  being  held 
close  to  them. 

The  chief  object  in  this  was  to  give  an  even  appearance 
to  the  surface,  which  by  the  application  of  hot  colour  is 
rendered  very  unequal  as  can  easily  be  proved  by  ex- 
periments. The  penetrating  of  the  wax  into  the  material 
lying  below  was  a  secondary  result.  This  method  was, 
according  to  ancient  writers,  employed,  where  to  us  now- 
a-days,  painting  with  oil  colour  on  wood  or  stone  would 
appear  suitable.  That  it  was  not  used  in  mural  painting 
we  have  the  express  statement  of  Pliny.1  "  With  these 
pigments  the  wax  is  coloured  for  paintings  that  are  burnt 
in — a  process  foreign  to  mural  jpainting,  but  familiar  in 
ship  painting."  With  so  explicit  a  declaration  we  need 
not  look  for  this  process  on  the  walls  of  Pompeii. 

We  have  on  the  other  hand  from  various  statements  in 
ancient  writers  positive  evidence  that  many  panel  or 
easel  pictures  were  executed  in  encaustic,  and  we  must 
therefore  endeavour  to  find  this  art  in  the  first  two 
methods  which  Pliny  describes  with  most  provoking- 
brevity  in  the  phrase  "  cera,  et  in  ebore  cestro,  id  est 
viriculo."  Now  since  special  mention  is  made  of  ivory  as 
xhe  material  on  which  the  second  method  was  employed, 
there  remains  for  the  same  purpose  in  the  first  method  the 
panel  of  wood  which  Pliny  did  not  deem  necessary  to 
specify,  as  he  could  assume  it  to  be  generally  known.  If 
in  this  most  scholars  agree,  their  opinions  differ  all  the  more 
on  what  follows.  Some  translate  cera,  as  in  cera.  Others 
consider  that  cera  of  itself  indicates  the  first  method  and 
in  ebore  cestro,  the  second.  They  think  that  the  cestrum 
was  only  used  in  the  second  method,  the  brush  in  the  first. 
Others  again  hold  that  the  cestrum  was  the  tool  employed  in 
both  methods,  but  that  wax  was  excluded  from  the  second. 

Passing  over  the  many  different  views,  I  cannot  leave 

1  ST.  H.,  xxxv.,  49.  Cera3  tinguntnr  iisdeni  coloribus  ad  eas 
picturas  quae  inumntur  alieno  parietibus  genere,  sed  classibus 
familiari. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


401 


unnoticed  those  of  Welcker,  who  says — "What  was  used 
in  panel  painting  instead  of  the  oestrum,  is  not  said,  but 
from  the  subsequent  words  penicillo  utendi  one  might  be 
led  to  think  that  it  had  not  been  the  brush.  This  how- 
ever is  very  improbable."  And  again  :  "  To  abandon  the 
facility  of  the  brush  in  an  age  when  painting  with  the 
brush  was  in  high  favour,  and  to  lay  on  the  colour  as 
with  a  pen,  would  have  been  very  preposterous."  Welcker 
supposes  that  the  coloured  wax  was  dissolved  in  volatile 
oil  and  applied  with  the  brush.  He  considers  a  main 
feature  in  this  art  to  have  been  the  skilful  guiding  of  the 
rhabdion,  pafSSuov,  or  red-hot  rod,  as  he  names  the  instru- 
ment employed  in  fusing  the  colours.  He  says,  "  The 
enamelling  and  blending  of  the  colours,  the  splendor  which 
must  have  been  the  principal  aim,  could  only  have  been 
produced  by  the  most  delicate  moving  of  the  heat  to  and 
fro.  By  means  of  the  heated  rod  skilfully  applied,  held 
steady  to  the  surface,  caused  to  glide  over  it,  kept  more  or 
less  distant  and  thus  regulating  the  tone  of  the  colours, 
that  effect  could  be  more  easily  produced  which  depended 
on  the  penetrating  and  fusing  of  the  tints."  Welcker 
limits  therefore  the  employment  of  the  cestrum  to  the 
second  method,  and  considers  the  brush  as  the  instrument 
used  in  the  first. 

I  do  not  share  this  view.  Instead  of  reading  like 
Welcker  :  cera,  et  in  ebore  cestro,  I  separate  the  words  in 
this  way  :  cera,  et  in  ebore,  cestro,  that  is,  with  wax,  also  on 
ivory,  with  the  cestrum ;  and  I  believe  that  the  first  two 
methods  were  distinguished  from  the  third  in  this,  that 
they  were  neither  executed  with  liquid  wax  hot  or  cold, 
nor  with  the  brush,  and  that  the  difference  between  these 
first  two  was  merely  the  material  on  which  they  were 
produced,  the  one  on  ivory,  the  other  on  panels  of  wood, 
with  coloured  or  uncoloured  ground,  the  same  tool  being 
used  in  both,  and  that  not  the  brush,  but  the  cestrum. 

Their  connection  with  each  other  is  apparent  from  the 
way  in  which  Pliny  contrasts  them  with  the  third 
method.     And  that   the  brush  was  not  employed  in 

2  D 


402     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


encaustic  panel  painting  is  further  ecu  armed  by  the 
fact  that  Pliny  in  his  enumeration  of  the  most  famous 
panel  painters  maintains  a  regular  and  marked  distinc- 
tion between  those  who  painted  panels  a  tempera  with 
the  brush,  and  the  encaustic  painters.     He  does  the 
same  also  when  having  concluded  his  series  of  the  most 
celebrated  of  the  first-mentioned  masters,  he  passes  on 
(xxxv.  112)  to  the  minoris  picturse  celebres  in  penicillo. 
Among  the  encaustic  painters,  he  mentions  Pausias,  whom 
he  calls  "  primum  in  hoc  genere  nobilem  (xxxv.  123),  and 
notices  as  specially  worthy  of  attention,  "  that  he,  paint- 
ing with  the  brush,  restored  the  walls  of  Thespiee,  which 
had  once  been  painted  by  Polygnotos,  but  in  comparison 
was  considered  to  be  far  surpassed  by  Polygnotos,  because 
he  did  not  compete  in  his  own  kind  of  painting.  When 
dealing  later  with  the  less  distinguished  in  both  methods, 
Pliny  states  that  "  Laia  of  Cyzicus  painted  in  Eome  as 
well  with  the  brush  as  on  ivory  with  the  cestrum  princi- 
pally female  portraits,  at  Naples  also  on  a  large  panel  the 
picture  of  an  old  woman."    Here  obviously  a  distinction  is 
made  between  painting  with  the  brush  on  the  one  hand  and 
painting  with  the  cestrum  on  ivory  and  also  on  large  panels 
on  the  other,  and  I  claim  that  in  this  contrast  of  methods 
Pliny  could  not  have  been  thinking  only  of  encaustic 
painting  with  the  cestrum  on  ivory,  which  after  all  could 
only  have  been  employed  to  a  limited  extent,  otherwise 
he  would  seem  to  be  comparing  great  things  with  small 
when  in  speaking  of  Zeuxis,  he  says,  "  and  he  brought 
the  already  somewhat  daring  brush  into  high  esteem,  for 
up  to  now  I  have  been  speaking  only  of  it."    This  expression 
can  only  refer  to  an  equally  important  technical  process 
in  the  higher  panel  or  historical  painting,  in  which  not 
the  brush  but  the  cestrum  was  employed,  as  it  was  in 
encaustic  paintings  of  lesser  importance  on  ivory. 

Without  following  Donner  in  his  argument  as  to 
what  sort  of  instrument  this  cestrum  was,  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  state  the  conclusion  arrived  at.    He  con- 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


403 


siclers  it  to  have  been  a  sort  of  elongated  spoon  with 
a  pointed  handle,  the  mouth  more  or  less  flat,  with  a 
finely-serrated  edge.  As  to  its  employment,  he  goes 
on  to  say  : — 

The  cestrum  or  vinculum  must  thus  have  been  a  sort 
of  spatula,  and  as  the  origin  of  these  two  methods  of 
encaustic  painting  is  without  doubt  to  be  traced  to  the 
practice  of  engraving  inscriptions  on  wood  or  ivory -tablets 
coated  with  wax,  by  means  of  a  pointed  style,  having  a 
broad  lower  end  which  served  to  smooth  down  the  wax 
(moreover  the  incising  of  designs  on  vases  was  very  common 
among  the  ancients),  it  can  readily  be  assumed  that  the 
pointed  end  of  the  handle  of  the  cestrum  was  employed 
for  the  same  purpose.  With  a  tool  of  this  nature,  which 
could  be  larger  or  smaller  according  to  the  size  of  the 
subjects  to  be  represented,  the  coloured  wax  could  be 
conveniently  applied  and  every  form  and  shade  produced. 
This  also  I  have  ascertained  by  individual  experiments. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  liquify  the  wax  by  heat,  nor  to 
dissolve  it  cold  by  a  volatile  oil.  It  simply  requires  the 
addition  of  a  little  balsamic  resin  or  rich  oil  to  be  melted 
with  the  wax  and  colouring  powder,  so  as  to  bring  it  to 
the  approximate  softness  of  modelling  wax.  The  fine 
serrated  edge  of  the  cestrum  prevents  the  too  great 
accumulation  of  wax,  when  being  laid  on,  and  any  over 
smoothness  of  the  surface ;  for  small  subjects  the  edge 
might  be  plain. 

It  is  some  compensation  for  our  loss  of  the  Greek 
mural  paintings  executed  by  the  great  masters,  to 
observe  that  at  least  the  final  stages  of  the  art  have  been 
so  strangely  and  so  amply  preserved  in  the  ruins  of 
Pompeii.  For  a  long  time  the  paintings  of  Pompeii 
have  drawn  all  eyes  to  them.  They  have  been  studied 
with  the  minutest  care.  They  have  been  classed 
according  to  the  periods  of  progress  or  decline  which 

2  d  2 


404      HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ABCHJEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 

they  illustrate,  and  in  all  this  the  general  result  has 
been  a  confirmation  of  the  view  that  these  mural 
paintings  of  Pompeii  were  the  work  of  artists  who 
had  inherited  the  traditions  of  Greek  painting  from 
the  Hellenistic  age,  that  is  to  say  the  period  after 
Alexander  the  Great.  But  of  late  years  attention 
has  also  been  called  to  Rome,  because  of  the  series 
of  paintings  found  on  the  walls  of  the  house  of 
Germanicus  (or  Livia)  on  the  Palatine  Hill  (1869), 
and  more  especially  because  of  the  mural  paintings 
discovered  in  1879  in  the  gardens  of  the  Villa 
Farnesina,  in  the  Trastevere.  Moreover  the  series  of 
very  interesting  pictures  excavated  on  the  Esquiline 
as  early  as  1849-50,  consisting  of  landscapes  illustra- 
tive of  the  Odyssey  (Books  x.  80 — xi.  600)  were  for  the 
first  time  in  1876  published  1  in  coloured  representa- 
tions which  convey  a  fair  notion  of  the  originals. 

Beginning  with  these  latter,  it  must  be  allowed  that 
to  modern  eyes,  accustomed  to  the  perfection  of 
landscape  painting,  these  pictures  appear  to  have  only 
moderate  merit.  Equally  they  displease  the  student 
of  ancient  Greek  art  in  its  best  times  with  its  large 
ideal  conceptions.  But  it  is  only  fair  to  remember 
that  in  the  days  of  those  painters,  the  possibilities  of 
landscape  were  just  beginning  to  be  appreciated. 
Moreover  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  in  the  important 
matter  of  composition  these  pictures  generally  display 
a  power  which  might  well  be  envied  by  painters  who 
far  surpass  them  in  technical  execution  and  vividness 
of  details. 

Apart  from  their  artistic  qualities  the  two  scenes 
representing  the  visit  of  Odysseus  to  the  Shades  are 
interesting  as  dealing  with  a  part  of  the  subject 

1  Woltmann  and  Woermann,  £  Die  Odysseelandschaften,'  1876. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


405 


of  the  painting  by  Polygnotos  on  the  Lesche  at 
Delphi,  though  there  is  no  sign  of  the  painter  in 
Eome  having  been  directly  influenced  by  them  in 
his  composition.  In  the  pictures  from  the  Farnesina 
Gardens  we  have  also  some  landscape  sketches  on 
panels  from  the  wall  of  one  room  and  above  them 
a  long  narrow  frieze  representing  scenes  of  daily 
life,  for  the  most  part  apparently  scenes  of  criminal 
justice,  in  which  prisoners  are  dragged  in  abject 
positions  before  a  judge.  Yet  these  scenes  are  not 
drawn  from  Roman  but  from  Greek  life  of  the  Hel- 
lenistic age. 1 

Far  more  important  are  the  pictures  from  another 
room  of  this  house,2  as  to  which  it  has  been  said  by  a 
highly  competent  authority 3  that  "  the  style  is  that 
of  the  Attic  vases  of  the  4th  cent.  B.C.,  and  above  all 
recalls  the  white  Athenian  lekythi."  That  is  to  say, 
the  painter  had  inherited  some  of  the  traditions  and 
conceptions  of  Athenian  art  in  the  4th  cent.  B.C. 
He  is  believed  to  have  executed  this  work  somewhere 
in  the  1st  cent.  B.C.,  and  it  is  a  tribute  to  his  fine 
appreciation  and  undoubted  talent  that  in  these 
changed  times  he  was  yet  able  to  produce  a  series 
of  paintings  fit  to  recall  the  great  art  of  Athens. 

Some  idea  of  the  style  may  be  obtained  from  the 
group  here  given  (Fig.  118),  which  forms  a  centre-piece 

1  <  Annali  dell'  Inst.  Arch.,'  1882,  p.  309.  The  'Monumenti 
dell'  Inst.  Arch.,'  xi.,  PI.  44,  gives  a  coloured  view  of  the  landscape, 
with  the  narrow  frieze  above  it.  The  frieze  itself  is  given  in  detail 
in  Pis.  45-48. 

2  Keproduced  in  the  '  Monumenti  dell'  Inst.  Arch.,'  xii.,  Pis.  5-8 
and  17-34,  with  text  in  the  £  Annali,'  1884,  p.  307,  and  1885, 
p.  302.  PI.  18  gives  a  coloured  view  which  is  quite  Pompeian  in 
its  aspect.    PI.  19  gives  a  sketch  of  the  whole  wall. 

3  Mau,  in  the  <  Annali  dell'  Inst.  Arch.,'  1884,  p.  319. 


406     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 

on  the  wall,  and  represents  apparently  a  bridal  scene 
under  the  guise  of  Aphrodite  seated  on  a  throne, 


Fig.  118.    Fresco  found  in  Farnesina  Gardens,  Borne. 


richly  robed,  with  a  crown  on  her  head  and  holding 
out  a  flower.    Behind  her  an  attendant  (Peitho?) 


PAINTING. 


arranges  her  veil,  before  her  stands  Eros.  With 
this  may  be  compared  another  picture  of  an  outdoor 
scene  in  which  three  Nymphs  are  occupied  in  the 
bringing  up  of  the  infant  god  Dionysos.  Among  the 
minor  panels  are  a  series  of  bridal  and  musical  scenes. 

In  no  case  do  these  groups  approach  in  dimensions 
the  large  frescoes  of  Pompeii.  At  the  most  they  are 
between  three  and  four  feet  high.  The  task  set  to 
the  painter,  as  indeed  was  the  case  often  at  Pompeii 
also,  was  to  paint  the  wall  of  a  moderately-sized  room 
so  as  to  make  it  look  like  a  great  palace  with 
extensive  walls  enriched  with  columns,  friezes,  can- 
delabra and  in  particular  with  handsome  pictures 
hung  or  painted  on  panels  set  in  elaborate  frames. 
The  whole  object  was  to  reproduce  on  a  small  scale 
and  with  the  illusions  of  perspective  a  picture  of  a 
great  building  that  had  no  existence  but  in  the  fancy 
of  the  painter,  acting  on  the  traditions  of  his  art  as 
they  had  come  down  to  him  from  the  Hellenistic  age 
of  Greece.  Among  the  architectural  features  are 
introduced  a  number  of  statues  which  are  represented 
in  a  very  markedly  archaistic  manner.  That  is  to 
say,  they  profess  to  imitate  archaic  Greek  statues  of 
the  6th  cent.  B.C.,  but  exaggerate  enormously  the 
peculiarities  of  that  early  art.  This  was  a  fashion  in 
Eome  in  the  1st  cent.  B.C. 

The  same  in  general  may  be  said  of  the  paintings 
in  the  house  of  Germanicus  (or  Livia)  on  the  Palatine,1 
though  nowhere  in  these  has  the  artist  attained  the 
ideal  height  of  the  Farnesina  frescoes.  In  this 
instance  the  date  has  been  fairly  ascertained  from 

1  'Monument!  dell'  Inst.  Arch.,  xi.,  Pis.  22-23  ;  <  Annali,'  1875, 
p.  210,  Pi.  kl,  and  1880,  p.  136.  See  also  George  Perrot, 
'  Memoires  d'Archeologie,'  Pis.  5-8. 


408     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


certain  stamps  that  were  found  on  lead  water-pipes. 
From  these  and  the  general  features  of  the  paintings 
it  appears  that  the  house  on  the  Palatine  had  been 
decorated  in  the  early  years  of  the  Emperor  Augustus, 
when  a  taste  still  prevailed  in  Eome  for  the  old 
Greek  painting.  Among  the  pictures  the  most  inte- 
resting are,  first,  a  group  of  Io,  Argos,  and  Hermes. 
Io  is  seated  in  front  of  a  rock  and  at  the  foot  of  a 
pillar  surmounted  by  a  statue  of  Hera.  On  the  right 
Argos  stands,  half  idly  addressing  Io.  Meantime 
Hermes,  her  guardian,  makes  his  appearance  on  the 
left,  coming  stealthily  round  the  rock.  Secondly,  a 
group  of  Galatea  (Fig.  119)  crossing  the  water  on  a 
hippocamp,  and  astonished  at  the  appearance  of  the 
monster  Polyphemos  beside  a  rock ;  a  small  Eros 
drives  him  on.  Two  sea-nymphs,  companions  of 
Galatea,  are  alarmed.  In  the  distance  are  rocks  and 
sea.  Thirdly,  we  have  a  view  of  a  street  with  high 
buildings  from  which  a  few  persons  look  down  with 
curiosity  at  a  passing  female  figure  with  an  attendant. 
What  the  subject  is  does  not  appear. 

As  examples  of  Eoman  mural  painting  available  for 
study  in  this  country  we  should  mention  here  those 
in  the  British  Museum  which  were  obtained  from 
the  tomb  of  the  Nasones  on  the  Flaminian  Way 
near  Eome.  These  pictures  were  much  broken  and 
required  a  good  deal  of  putting  together.  Neverthe- 
less they  may  fairly  serve  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  art 
as  it  was  practised  in  Eome  in  the  1st  cent.  B.C. 
The  composition  and  the  drawing  of  the  figures  may 
be  mannered  enough  at  times.  Yet  there  is  always 
in  these  pictures  the  singular  charm  of  brilliancy  of 
colour  and  true  pictorial  effect  which  belongs  to 
ancient  fresco. 


Fig.  119.    Fresco  in  House  of  Germanicus,  Borne.  Polyphemos 
and  Galatea. 


410     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AECHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


But  let  us  now  hear  what  so  competent  an 
authority  as  the  ancient  architect  Vitruvius  says 
(vii.  5),  when  comparing  the  older  mural  painting 
with  that  of  his  own  time.  The  passage  as  translated 
by  Gwilt  (1826)  runs  : 

I.  "  Those  of  the  ancients  who  first  used  polished  coats 
of  plastering,  originally  imitated  the  variety  and  arrange- 
ment of  inlaid  marbles." 

II.  "  Afterwards  the  variety  was  extended  to  the 
cornices  and  the  yellow  and  red  frames  of  panels,  from 
which  they  proceeded  to  the  representations  of  buildings, 
columns,  and  the  projections  of  roofs.  In  spacious  apart- 
ments, such  as  exedree,  on  account  of  their  extent,  they 
decorated  the  walls  with  scenery  after  the  tragic,  comic, 
or  satyric  mode  ;  and  galleries,  from  their  extended  length, 
they  decorated  with  landscapes,  the  representations  of 
particular  spots.  In  these  they  also  painted  ports,  pro- 
montories, the  coasts  of  the  sea,  rivers,  fountains,  straits, 
groves,  mountains,  cattle,  shepherds,  and  natives,  figures 
representing  gods  and  stories  such  as  the  Trojan  battles 
or  the  wanderings  of  Ulysses  over  different  countries,  and 
other  subjects  founded  on  real  history." 

III.  "  But  those  which  were  used  by  the  ancients  are 
now  tastelessly  laid  aside,  inasmuch  as  monsters  are 
painted  in  the  present  day,  rather  than  objects  whose 
prototypes  are  to  be  observed  in  nature.  For  columns, 
reeds  are  substituted ;  for  pediments,  the  stalks,  leaves, 
and  tendrils  of  plants;  candelabra  are  made  to  support 
the  representations  of  small  buildings,  from  whose  sum- 
mits many  stalks  appear  to  spring  with  absurd  figures 
thereon.  .  .  .  And  yet  the  public,  far  from  discouraging 
these  falsehoods  are  delighted  with  them,  not  for  a 
moment  considering  whether  such  things  exist." 

For  the  sake  of  convenience  we  have  broken  up 
this  passage  into  three  paragraphs  and  numbered 
them  accordingly.    But  so  far  as  the  Eoman  paintings 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


411 


are  concerned  which  we  have  just  described,  it  is  only 
the  second  paragraph  that  we  need  notice.  Nor  is 
any  comment  necessary,  so  vividly  do  the  words  of 
Vitruvius  recall  these  paintings,  even  to  the  "  wander- 
ings of  Ulysses  over  different  countries,"  as  we  see 
them  on  the  Esquiline  frescoes,  and  the  garden  scene 
at  Porta  Prima  (Fig.  120).  When,  however,  we  come 
to  the  paintings  of  Pompeii  the  whole  passage  receives 
ample  illustration.  This  passage  has  in  fact  proved  a 
key  for  the  classification  of  these  paintings  into  three 
large  divisions  corresponding  to  the  three  paragraphs 
of  Vitruvius.  For  this  result  all  lovers  of  Pompeii 
owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  M.  Mau  for  the  long  years 
of  faithful  painstaking  and  skilful  research  on  the 
spot  by  which,  and  by  which  alone,  it  was  possible  to 
discriminate  the  three  successive  styles  answering  to 
Vitruvius,  and  to  demonstrate  each  by  further  evidence 
from  the  successive  methods  of  building  and  con- 
struction which  had  obtained  in  Pompeii,  and  which 
may  still  be  seen  amid  the  traces  of  ruin  which  had 
befallen  Pompeii  previous  to  the  final  catastrophe. 

The  three  successive  stages  which  M.  Mau  recog- 
nises in  the  paintings  of  Pompeii  are  named  by  him, 
(1)  the  Incrustation  style,  (2)  the  Architectural 
style,  (3)  the  Ornamental  style.  These  he  finds 
associated  with  certain  methods  of  construction  that 
succeeded  each  other  in  the  houses  and  public 
buildings.  In  the  oldest  of  these  methods  the  houses 
were  low,  apparently  always  of  one  storey ;  but  the 
fronts  or  fafades,  the  principal  walls  and  pilasters,  are 
noticeable  for  the  regular  courses  of  carefully  squared 
limestone  blocks  of  which  they  are  built  (Casa  del 
Chirurgo),  reminding  us  of  Greek  masonry  of  the  best 
times.    In  the  inner  or  party  walls,  where  less  solidity 


Chap.  IX,] 


PAINTING. 


413 


was  required,  it  was  thought  sufficient  to  build  up  a 
framework  of  squared  limestone  blocks  and  to  fill  in 
the  intervening  spaces  with  small  stones  bound 
together  with  lime.  Walls  of  this  kind  would  of 
course  be  coated  with  plaster  or  faced  with  thin  slabs 
of  marble ;  but  no  painted  decoration  has  been  found 
on  them.  In  the  second  method  the  fa£ades  and 
principal  walls  of  the  houses  retain  the  old  aspect  of 
regular  courses  of  squared  stones  with  the  difference 
that  the  stone  now  employed  is  a  fine  tufa  and  that 
the  joints  are  surrounded  by  a  rebated  border  (Oasa 
del  Fauno  and  Oasa  di  Sallustio).  The  construction 
of  the  inner  or  party  walls  has  deteriorated  into 
rubble  consisting  of  chips  of  stone  bound  firmly 
together  by  a  hard  cement.  These  walls  were  coated 
with  a  fine  hard  plaster,  which  was  painted  over 
so  as  to  imitate  regular  courses  of  squared  blocks  of 
different  coloured  marbles  with  rebated  borders  round 
the  joints.  That  is  to  say,  the  poorer  the  wall  itself 
the  more  must  it  pretend  to  be  made  of  the  richest 
and  most  finely  hewn  marble.  In  the  third  method 
the  fapades  as  well  as  the  inner  walls  of  houses  were 
coated  with  plaster.  The  older  masonry  in  regular 
courses  of  large  squared  blocks  had  been  entirely 
superseded ;  but  its  influence  was  still  apparent  in  the 
stucco  and  coloured  imitations  of  it,  as  on  the  facade 
of  the  Casa  del  Questore  (dei  Dioscuri)  with  its  high 
red  base  surmounted  by  stucco  decoration  imitating 
white  squared  blocks  with  rich  borders.  On  the 
inner  walls  in  general  this  masonry  was  no  longer 
even  imitated  in  painting.  The  walls  now  were 
composed  of  small  stones  and  tiles  bound  together 
with  a  cement,  which  gave  the  greatest,  hardness  and 
strength  to  the  wall.    With  all  their  convenience  and 


414     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


usefulness  walls  of  this  sort  were  for  the  most  part 
extremely  mean  in  appearance.  It  was  inevitable 
that  they  should  be  covered  with  plaster,  nor  was 
it  strange  that  even  their  existence  was  sought  to 
be  concealed  behind  attractive  views  painted  on 
them. 

The  first  or  Incrustation  style  of  decoration  is  charac- 
terised by  this,  that  it  seeks  to  reproduce  in  moulded 
stucco  and  colour,  the  aspect  of  a  wall  built  of  fmely- 


Fig.  121.    From  House  of  Sallust,  the  doors  restored.    Mau,  PI.  2. 

squared  and  jointed  blocks  of  marble,  together  with  more 
or  less  of  architectural  features.  As  a  rule  the  incrusta- 
tion does  not  begin  immediately  at  the  foot  of  the  wall, 
but  follows  directly  above  a  long  base  or  plinth,  which  is 
generally  painted  of  a  uniform  colour  on  smooth  un- 
moulded  stucco.  From  this  point  it  extends  some  way 
up  the  wall,  seldom  to  the  top.  The  general  scheme, 
however,  will  be  best  understood  from  the  decoration  of 
the  Atrium  in  the  Casa  di  Sallustio,  as  seen  in  Fig.  121. 


415 


At  the  very  bottom  of  the  wall  runs  a  narrow  band  of  a 
reddish  colour,  separated  from  the  broad  yellow  base  by 
a  line  scratched  into  the  wet  stucco.    Both  it  and  the 
base  are  simply  painted  on  smooth  stucco.    On  the  base 
rests  a  course  of  large  black  rectangular   slabs  with 
rebated  or  sunk  border.    Next  above  them  projects  a 
narrow  purple  fillet  with  a  plain  moulding  along  the  top. 
To  this  succeed  two  courses  of  smaller  rectangular  slabs  of 
different  colours,  yellow,  red,  and  violet.    These  two  courses 
are  separated  from  each  other  by  a  white  stucco  band  with 
projecting  edge,  an  element   seldom    wanting  in  this 
decoration,  though  foreign  to  the  Basilica.    Then  comes  a 
course  of  bright  variegated  marble,  having  along  the  top 
a  projecting  moulding.    This  moulding  is  not  carried  all 
round,  as  in  some  cases,  like  a  frame,  but  instead  of  that  the 
edges  of  the  slab  on  the  sides  and  along  the  bottom  are 
bevelled  down  to  the  background.    Above  this  there  is  a 
smooth  violet  band,  which  we  may  term  the  frieze,  which 
is  again  crowned  by  a  pretty  heavy  stucco  cornice  with 
dentals,  and  of  fine  Greek  form  obviously  imitated  from  an 
Ionic  temple.    This  cornice  does  not  quite  approach  the 
pilasters  and  door-posts,  but  breaks  off  at  a  short  distance 
from  them,  receding  towards  the  bottom,  the  return 
showing  the  same   profile  as   the  front.    This  was  a 
necessary  proceeding,  for  to  have  prolonged  each  member 
of  the  cornice  till  it  was  flush  with  the  pilaster  or  door- 
post would  have  had  an  unpleasing  effect,  owing  to  the 
greater  projection  of  the  cornice.    Between  this  and  the 
upper  cornice  there  is  no  incrustation ;  the  wall  is  divided 
into  compartments  and  merely  painted  in  plain  colours. 
In  this  example  we  have  the  leading  features  of  this  style 
of  decoration  :  the  base,  one  course  of  large  rectangular 
slabs,  two  courses  of  smaller  rectangular  slabs,  and  the 
cornice  which  is  specially  characteristic  of  this  style. 
Details,  however,  vary  considerably  on  different  walls,  and 
even  in  the  same  house,  according  as  the  decoration  is 
more  or  less  rich.     Variety  is  given  by  the  different 
arrangement  of  the  colours,  the  introduction  of  inter- 


416     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCELEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


mediate  members  and  by  the  modification  of  the  rec- 
tangular slabs  themselves.  The  colours  employed  in  the 
slabs  are  such  as  would  best  simulate  marble ;  violet, 
yellow,  green,  less  frequently  red  and  black  and  white. 
The  rebated  border  is  often  of  a  different  colour  from  that 
of  the  slab.    In  the  lowest  course  the  large  slabs  either 


Fig.  122.    From  House  of  Salhist,  Pompeii.    Man,  PL  1. 


lie  horizontally  or  are  placed  upright.  In  the  former 
case  they  are  always  black,  and  almost  always  without 
borders.  On  the  other  hand  when  the  slabs  are  placed 
upright  there  is  much  variety  in  the  colouring  and 
borders.  From  which,  with  other  reasons,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  when  these  slabs  are  found  standing  vertical, 
they  indicate  a  late  stage  of  this  system  of  decoration^ 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


417 


when  its  underlying  idea  of  a  wall  or  regular  masonry- 
was  becoming  obscured. 

As  an  example  of  the  Incrustation  style  in  which  more 
elaborate  architectural  features  are  introduced,  we  give 
(Fig.  122)  part  of  another  room  in  the  House  of  Sallust. 
The  lower  portion  of  the  wall  having  been  plastered  over 
at  a  later  period,  is  not  here  reproduced,  only  what  remains 
of  the  original  decoration.  First  there  are  two  courses  of 
the  usual  horizontal  blocks  of  different  colours,  but  having 
in  common  the  rebated  border,  apparently  of  a  uniform 
dark  red.  Against  them  stands  an  Tonic  half-column 
moulded  in  stucco,  supporting  a  Doric  entablature  con- 
sisting of  epistyle,  mutules,  triglyphs,  metopes,  and  dental 
cornice,  for  which  see  section  included  in  Fig.  122.  The 
introduction  of  triglyphs  and  metopes  is,  however,  not 
common  in  this  style  of  decoration. 

As  already  said,  the  incrustation  is,  as  a  rule,  limited 
to  a  part  of  the  wall,  the  base  and  upper  space  being 
excluded  from  it. 

The  base  is  simply  painted  on  a  smooth  surface ;  in 
this  first  style  always  of  a  lighter  colour  than  the  slabs 
immediately  above  it,  from  which  it  is  very  usually 
separated  by  a  slight  moulding.  The  prevalent  colour 
of  the  base  is  yellow,  with  exceptions  such  as  light 
variegated  marble.  In  it  rectangular  blocks  with  rebated 
border  rarely  occur,  and  then  chiefly  where  the  wall  is 
divided  into  compartments  by  actual  pilasters  or  half- 
columns,  as  in  the  Basilica  and  in  the  two  peristyles  of 
the  Casa  del  Fauno.  The  upper  wall  above  the  cornice 
is  rendered  in  various  ways.  Very  often,  especially  in 
small  rooms,  the  decoration  entirely  ceases  and  there 
follows  only  a  surface  covered  with  coarse  white  stucco 
sometimes  broken  up  with  windows,  round  which  is  a  line 
of  finer  stucco.  Another  method  is  to  paint  the  smooth 
wall  with  different  colours  in  large  masses.  Sometimes 
indeed,  though  rarely,  the  incrustation  is  continued  above 
the  cornice,  and  we  find  rectangular  slabs  with  rebated 
border.    These,  however,  though  of  different  colours,  have 

2  E 


4L8      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


a  unity  of  effect  through  being  identical  in  shape  and 
having  in  common  a  border  of  uniform  colour,  so  that 
even  here  the  wall  culminating  in  the  dental  cornice  has 
the  appearance  of  a  screen ;  above  and  beyond  it  the 
actual  wall  of  the  room  is  seen,  which  in  some  cases 
has  a  second  cornice.  This  screen,  as  we  have  called 
it,  is  in  a  way  characterised  as  the  external  wall  of  a 
building  resting  on  a  solid  base  and  crowned  by  the 
projecting  cornice  of  an  Ionic  temple. 

This  style  of  decoration  is  found  almost  entirely  on  the 
buildings  of  tufa  masonry,  that  is,  in  the  period  of  the 
greatest  building  activity  in  Pompei.  It  is  seen  best  in 
the  Basilica,  the  Casa  di  Sallustio,  and  the  Casa  del  Fauno. 
From  an  architectural  point  of  view  the  buildings  of  this 
tufa  period  exhibit  in  the  orders  of  the  columns  and  in 
the  finely  worked  out  details  the  strongest  and  most 
direct  Greek  influence  of  the  3rd  cent.  B.C.  The  decora- 
tion may  be  traced  to  the  same  source.  At  that  date  it 
is  understood  that  in  rich  towns  such  as  Alexandria  costly 
marbles  were  largely  employed  as  decoration  for  walls, 
both  of  private  houses  and  public  buildings.  In  Italy, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  employment  of  marble  cut  into 
slabs  for  facing  walls,  was,  according  to  Pliny,  still  un- 
known in  78  or  74  B.C.,  at  which  time,  as  we  see  from 
an  inscription  scratched  on  a  wall  in  the  Basilica, 
indicating  the  year  78  B.C.,  the  stucco  imitation  of 
marble  facing  was  already  in  operation.  It  was  therefore 
not  an  imitation  of  a  practice  existing  in  Italy.  How 
long  this  stucco  decoration  had  been  employed  before 
78  B.C.  is  uncertain,  but  probably  both  it  and  the  buildings 
of  the  tufa  period  have  to  be  ascribed  to  the  2nd  and  1st 
centuries  b.c 

In  the  second  or  Architectural  style  the  decoration, 
which  in  the  previous  stage  was  executed  in  moulded 
stucco,  is  now  produced  by  painting  alone.  That  is  the 
first  important  and  general  difference.  Next  we  have  to 
notice  two  stages  of  development  within  this  second  style. 
The  first  stage  reproduces  so  exactly  the  older  incrusta- 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


419 


tion  system,  that  it  may  be  called  a  painted  copy  of  the 
same.  In  one  very  important  point  the  older  method  had 
been  at  a  disadvantage.  It  could  not  without  encroaching 
on  the  room  render  a  strongly  projected  base  to  correspond 
with  the  heavy  cornices  higher  up  on  the  wall.  In  paint- 
ing with  the  aid  of  perspective,  this  was  an  easy  task,  and 


Fig.  123.    From  the  Casa  del  Laberinto,  Pompeii.    Mau,  PL  3. 

this  is  where  the  second  stage  comes  in  (Fig.  123).  The 
base  was  now  distinctly  represented  as  that  of  a  colon- 
nade with  columns  supporting  a  roof  and  having  a  lower 
wall  behind  them;  so  also  the  spaces  above  this  lower 
wall,  which  in  the  older  incrustation  style  were  mostly  left 
vague  and  indefinite,  now  appear  as  belonging  to  a  room 
or  rooms  beyond.    It  was  not  possible  to  carry  out  this 

2  e  2 


420      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


system  of  perspective  thoroughly  without  destroying  the 
rhythmic  regularity  of  the  slabs  which  up  to  now  had 
been  so  conspicuous  an  element  on  the  walls.  For 
instance,  had  the  columns  or  pillars  together  with  the 
wall  behind  them  been  painted  in  perspective  from  one 
uniform  point  of  view,  the  result  would  have  been  a 
regular  diminishing  of  the  spaces  between  the  columns, 
the  farther  they  were  removed  from  the  actual  point  of 
view.  In  this  case  the  large  upright  slabs  which,  when 
seen  directly  from  the  front,  occupy  the  spaces  between 
and  behind  the  columns  with  perfect  regularity,  would 
be  rendered  unequal.  To  prevent  this,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  maintain  the  structural  character  of  the  architec- 
ture, different  points  of  view  had  to  be  taken.  In  such 
practice  there  must  always  have  been  a  sense  of  unsatis- 
factoriness  which  in  time  would  be  sure  to  invite  further 
change.  What  followed  was  this  : — the  idea  of  the  colon- 
nade was  so  far  given  up  that  all  that  remained  of  it  was 
the  low  wall  or  screen  with  projecting  base. 

This  wall,  no  longer  representing  masonry,  was  divided 
into  large  fields,  usually  three,  having  an  imposing  struc- 
ture in  the  centre,  resembling  in  form  the  shrine  (sacra- 
rium)  which  we  see  in  a  house  of  the  incrustation  style, 
that  of  M.  Epidius  Bufus.  On  the  top  of  this  low  wall 
could  be  painted  masks,  vases,  and  small  panel  pictures. 
The  frieze  of  this  low  wall  might  be  richly  decorated 
with  arabesques,  interspersed  with  animals,  Cupids,  &c. 
The  ornaments  supposed  to  be  executed  in  wood, 
metal,  glass,  gilding,  reliefs  in  stucco  and  pictures, 
were  painted  to  convey  the  exact  nature  of  the  material. 
An  example  of  this  later  enrichment  may  be  seen  in 
Fig.  124. 

The  centre-piece  which  we  have  compared  to  a  shrine, 
contains  here  a  picture  which  reaches  nearly  to  the  top, 
where  it  leaves  a  view  out  into  the  open  air.  On  the  roof  of 
the  shrine  stand  two  winged  figures  with  hands  raised  as  if 
supporting  the  epistyle  which  stretches  from  one  corner 
pillar  to  the  other,  though  that  would  be  impossible  in 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


421 


reality,  as  they  stand  considerably  further  forward  than 
the  epistyle.    This  representation  of  figures  in  the  round 


Fig.  124.    From  House  in  Pompeii.    Mau,  PI.  5. 


may  be  added  to  the  characteristics  of  the  advanced  stage 
of  the  second  style.    This  is  true  also  of  the  tendency  to 


422      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


supersede  the  simple  fluted  shafts  of  stone  columns  by 
wooden  shafts  made  to  imitate  palm  stems.  The  entire 
centre-piece  seems  to  imitate  a  structure  in  wood  enriched 
with  borders  and  ornaments  of  metal  and  other  materials. 
One  important  point  is  the  figure  on  each  flank  of  the 
centre-piece,  because  figured  representations  as  a  rule  do 
not  make  an  appearance  till  the  next  or  third  style.  Up 
to  the  present  stage  they  have  been  seen  to  occur  only  in 
imitations  of  small  panel  pictures  attached  to  walls.  Here, 
however,  as  in  the  third  style,  they  are  not  imitations  of 
panel  pictures  but  pictures  themselves.  The  manner  in 
which  these  figures  are  grouped  on  the  flanks  of  the 
centre-piece,  shows  that  this  decoration,  in  spite  of  its 
tendency  to  the  later  ornamental  style,  is  still  in  the  main 
true  to  the  second  or  architectural  style. 

Third  or  Ornament  Style. — The  tendency  of  the  second 
style  in  its  later  stage  had  been  to  simplify  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  wall;  in  particular  to  leave  out  from  the 
upper  part  of  it  the  marble  incrustation  which  had  been 
handed  on  from  the  first  style,  and  thus  to  secure  a  field 
for  new  ornament.  This  tendency  now  became  a  prin- 
ciple. A  wall  surmounted  by  a  cornice  above  which  are 
small  architectural  views,  is  an  established  feature  in  the 
third  style  (Fig.  125).  And  just  as  the  second  style  had  not 
been  content  with  reproducing  merely  architectural  forms, 
but  had  also  sought  to  stamp  an  ornamental  character  on 
its  architecture  by  a  careful  imitation  of  rich  and  varied 
materials,  by  occasionally  sacrificing  its  architectural 
construction  to  decorative  effect,  and  even  converting 
architectural  forms  into  ornaments  by  giving  them 
fantastic  shapes,  proportions  too  slight  for  reality,  or 
suppressing  characteristic  mouldings  (upper  part  of  wall, 
Mau,  PI.  8) ;  so  also  the  third  style  set  itself  to  realise 
fully  the  ends  towards  which  these  efforts  of  the  preceding 
stage  had  been  tending,  and  to  create  a  truly  decorative 
as  opposed  to  an  imitative  style.  The  architectonic 
features  were  attenuated  to  a  degree  impossible  in  reality, 
and  the  flat  surfaces  were  greatly  enlarged,  no  longer 


Chap.  IX.] 


423 


Fig.  125.    From  House  of  M.  Spurius  Masor,  Pompeii. 
Mau,  PL  12. 


representing  slabs  of  this  or  that  material,  but  being 
simply  fields  for  decoration  and  generally  having  a  small 
painting  in   the  middle  of  each  field.    Among  these 


424     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


paintings  we  find  figures  floating  in  the  air  (Cupids, 
dancers),  birds,  groups  of  vases,  and  so  on.  The  horizontal 
architecture,  such  as  entablatures  and  cornices,  is  deprived 
of  its  characteristic  mouldings,  in  place  of  which  are  found 
ornamental  bands  painted  to  represent  a  flat  surface.  In 
the  central  shrine  the  architectural  characteristics  are 
suggested  rather  than  fully  rendered. 

Columns  or  pillars  are  retained  for  the  sides  of  the 
shrine,  but  they  are  stripped  of  moulded  details;  the 
flutings  are  not  represented,  or  at  most  are  merely  sug- 
gested by  faint  lines.  It  is  an  exception  to  find  projecting 
ornaments  unless  where  a  special  material  is  to  be  in- 
dicated. Where  in  the  older  styles  columns  or  pillars 
stood  in  front  of  a  wall  (Mau,  Pis.  III.,  IV.),  they  are  now 
usually  replaced  by  candelabra  or  even  by  ornamental 
bands. 

Following  on  the  third  style,  M.  Mau  finds  a  final  stage 
of  decoration,  having  more  the  character  of  a  decline  than 
of  a  new  style.  That  final  stage  was  contemporary  with 
the  last  period  of  Pompeii  between  the  earthquake  of 
63  a.d.  and  the  great  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  79  a.d.,  which 
destroyed  and  buried  the  city.  Of  the  third  style  in  its 
pure  form  there  is  no  trace  in  houses  decorated  between 
these  dates.  Probably  it  had  ceased  about  50  a.d.,  having 
lasted  from  the  beginning  of  our  era  or  thereabout.  In 
this  last  stage  of  decline  it  will  be  seen  (1)  that  the  orna- 
ments which  in  the  pure  third  style  had  been  painted  as 
flat  are  now  made  to  imitate  reliefs  and  moulded  work. 
(2)  The  pictures  within  the  shrine  become  smaller.  (8) 
The  small  flying  figures  in  the  centre  of  large  fields 
(Cupids,  animals,  &c),  give  place  to  larger  figures  or 
groups  and  greater  freedom.  (4)  When  architectural 
views  occur  in  the  upper  wall,  which  is  seldom,  they  are 
confused  in  the  arrangement,  coarse  and  tasteless  in 
execution,  with  a  prevalence  of  yellow  colour,  and  none 
of  the  taste  and  delicacy  which  had  distinguished  the 
slight  architectural  views  so  frequent  in  the  upper  parts 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


425 


of  walls  in  the  best  stage  of  the  third  style.  (5)  The 
base,  which  is  generally  black  in  the  third  style,  with 
white  lines  crossing  each  other  or  forming  simple  patterns, 
is  broken  up  with  broad  coloured  oblongs  (each  having  a 
bird,  a  figure,  a  plant),  bands,  borders,  garlands,  and  even 
imitations  of  small  marble  slabs.  Common  to  both  stages 
are  the  rows  of  plants.  (6)  The  cold  white  colour  which 
forms  the  ground  of  borders  in  the  third  style,  is  now 
superseded  by  yellow ;  this  is  a  radical  element  of  differ- 
ence. (7)  The  purity  and  accuracy  of  drawing  which 
courted  close  inspection,  gives  place  to  a  more  complicated 
system  of  ornament,  in  which  error  is  not  easily  detected. 

If  an  attempt  were  to  be  made  to  reconstruct  the 
lost  mural  decoration  of  Greece  out  of  these  successive 
stages  of  decoration  in  Pompeii,  the  first  step  would 
probably  be  to  strike  out  a  great  part  of  M.  Mau's 
third  or  ornament  style,  and  to  ascribe  it  to  the  in- 
vention of  Roman  artists,  exaggerating  into  fantastic 
shapes  what  they  had  seen  in  more  simple  forms  in 
Greece.  We  may  assume  that  when  Vitruvius  in 
the  passage  already  quoted  denounces  the  mural 
painters  of  his  own  time  for  a  tastelessness  corre- 
sponding exactly  to  the  third  style  of  Pompeii,  he 
is  thinking  of  Roman  painters.  It  was  a  Roman 
Ludius, 1  living  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  who, 
according  to  Pliny  (N.H.  xxxv.  116),  had  been  the 
first  to  introduce  into  mural  painting  charming 
views  of  villas,  porticoes,  gardens,  groves,  hills, 
fountains,  canals,  rivers,  coasts,  interspersed  with 
human  figures  in  various  occupations,  as  in  fishing, 
sailing,  walking,  driving,  and  such  like.  We  may 
readily  suppose  that  Ludius  had  a  large  following 
among  his  countrymen.    The  natural  aptitude  of  the 

1  Helbig  prefers  to  write  the  name  Tadius. 


426     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


Italian  race  for  work  of  this  sort  would  favour  the 
supposition  ;  and  if  this  is  so,  it  would  have  been  for 
those  Roman  painters  an  easy  step  from  fanciful  villas 
and  porticoes  to  forms  of  decoration  which  had 
equally  little  relation  to  reality. 

But  after  all,  in  any  attempt  to  discriminate 
between  what  was  specially  Eoman  and  what  Greek 
in  the  Pompeian  paintings,  we  are  confronted  at  the 
outset  with  the  fact,  that  in  those  days  it  was  a  dis- 
tinction among  the  Romans,  in  art  as  in  literature, 
to  be  imbued  with  Greek  taste  and  penetrated  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  artistic  conceptions  of  the  Greeks. 
However  we  might  be  tempted  to  separate  the  land- 
scapes and  assign  them  to  local  inspiration,  because 
of  a  certain  charm  of  originality,  freshness  and  bright- 
ness which  they  possess,  reminding  us  of  the  local  in- 
spiration in  the  poetry  of  Theocritos,  Moschos  and 
Bion  across  in  Sicily,  yet  we  miss  in  those  landscapes 
the  accurate  delineation  of  local  scenery  which  would 
be  expected  were  they  from  first  to  last  the  inspira- 
tions of  local  talent.  We  miss  the  changing  beauty 
of  the  sky  and  sea.  Some  of  the  striking  alterna- 
tions of  nature  are  indeed  recognised,  but  there  is  no 
attempt  to  rouse  our  sympathy  with  nature  herself. 
Instead  of  that  we  are  always  taken  back  to  some 
element  of  human  life,  no  matter  how  insignificant. 
The  artist  was  happy  when  he  could  fall  back  on 
Greek  legend  and  introduce  into  his  landscapes  such 
figures  as  Daeclalos  and  Icaros,  Ulysses  passing  the 
sirens, 1  and  much  else.  In  an  artistic  sense,  as  parts 
of  a  composition  these  figures  are  mostly  of  little  or 
no  account,  but  they  touch  the  chord  of  human  interest 
by  an  easier  process  than  the  true  rendering  of  the 
1  Examples  of  these  subjects  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


427 


landscape,  had  that  occurred  to  the  mind  of  the 
painter.  In  other  instances,  as  where  Ariadne  awakes 
on  the  shore  to  see  the  ship  of  Theseus  out  at  sea, 
the  human  figure  becomes  the  principal  feature ;  the 
landscape  proper  is  made  no  more  of  than  is  necessary 
to  explain  the  story.  In  the  touching  group  of  Pero 
and  her  father  Cimon  in  the  prison  cell,  the  stream 
of  light  coming  from  the  narrow  window  has  been 
observed  and  utilized  by  the  painter,  but  not  at  all  so 
as  to  produce  the  effect  of  light  streaming  into  the 
gloom  of  a  prison  cell,  w7ith  the  associations  which  the 
contrast  arouses. 

Among  the  many  pictures  of  Pompeii  there  is  one 
which  may  be  definitely  claimed  to  represent  a  local 
scene  and  incident,  the  tumult  which  took  place  in 
the  amphitheatre  of  Pompeii  in  A.d.  59,  between  the 
Pompeians  and  people  from  Nucera.  Though  little 
more  than  a  sketch,  this  picture  is  extremely  inte- 
resting because  it  shows  that  a  turn  for  work  of  this 
kind  was  not  wanting  among  the  painters.  We  see 
it  again  in  the  pictures  of  life  in  the  forum,  the 
workshop  of  the  fullers,  and  numerous  illustrations  of 
the  trades  and  occupations  of  daily  life.  And  if  this 
faculty  was  never  encouraged  so  as  to  develop  into 
something  like  the  genre  painting  of  modern  times, 
that  may  perhaps  have  been  due  to  the  all-prevail- 
ing influence  of  the  Greeks,  with  their  love  of  ideal 
forms  and  conceptions,  and  their  habit  of  seeing  the 
humorous  or  grotesque  side  of  humble  daily  life,  for 
which  a  rough  artistic  sketch  was  sufficient. 

So  far  as  Greek  painting  in  its  higher  walks 
(Megalographia)  is  concerned,  we  can  hardly  be 
wrong  if  we  assume  that  the  series  of  large  mytho- 
logical  pictures   in   Pompeii   fairly   represents  its 


428     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHJEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


general  aspects  after  the  death  of  Apelles  and  his 
great  contemporary  Protogenes.  In  these  pictures 
landscape  is  very  freely  introduced  for  the  sake  of 
localising  and  explaining  the  subject.  In  most  cases 
it  is  kept  strictly  as  a  background,  it  does  not  share 
the  same  light  nor  the  same  importance  as  the  figures 
in  front  of  it.  These  landscapes  may  in  fact  be 
considered  additions  to  the  picture,  put  in  when  the 
main  figures  have  been  painted  in  the  foreground, 
much  on  the  same  principle  as  that  on  which  Sir 
Joshua  Eeynolds  would  have  put  in  behind  a  full  length 
portrait  of  a  nobleman,  a  view  of  his  park  and  country 
seat.  But  though  the  principle  was  the  same,  the  land- 
scape backgrounds  in  the  Pompeian  pictures  were  not 
nearly  so  indifferent  to  the  main  figures.  They  were 
more  essentially  a  part  of  the  subject  as  a  whole. 

In  many  of  the  large  mythological  pictures  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  background  consists  of  large  masses 
of  rock,  which  in  a  sense  serve  as  a  screen  behind  the 
figures.  Though  very  simply,  and  from  a  naturalistic 
point  of  view  ineffectively  treated,  these  rocky  masses 
have  been  carefully  thought  out  and  disposed  for  the 
purpose  of  lending  dignity  and  solemnity  to  the 
figures  in  front  of  them.  They  are  mostly  of  a 
light  colour ;  it  is  an  exception  to  find  an  intentional 
darkening  of  the  background,  as  in  a  picture  of 
Selene  visiting  Endymion, 1  where  the  colour  of 
the  background  has  been  made  to  suggest  a  dull 
moonlight  effect, 2  such  as  Selene  would  bring  with 
her.  At  the  same  time  the  star  which  Eros,  stand- 
ing in  the  background,  has  above  his  head  shows 
how  much  reliance  was  placed  on  mere  symbols  even 

1  '  Mus.  Borbonico,'  ix.,  40  ;  cf.  xiv.,  PL  19. 

2  Helbig,  '  Wandgemalde  CampanieIls,,  No.  955. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


429 


here  where  a  direct  attempt  has  been  made  to  realize 
a  true  effect  of  light.  Otherwise  this  picture  may 
serve  to  illustrate  the  more  simple  compositions,  in 
which  a  rocky  background  is  skilfully  introduced. 

A  little  more  complex,  but  very  harmonious  in 
effect,  are  the  six  groups  of  Perseus  and  Andro- 
meda1 seated  on  a  broad  shelf  of  rock,  she  looking 
down  at  the  reflection  of  Medusa's  head  in  the  water 
at  her  feet,  while  he  holds  up  behind  the  actual  head 
of  Medusa.  The  rocky  background  rises  high  on  the 
right,  and  either  descends  behind  the  two  figures, 
leaving  them  to  be  partly  defined  against  foliage,  or 
is  replaced  behind  the  figures  by  a  high  garden-wall, 
which  acts  as  a  sort  of  screen  against  which  the  two 
figures  stand  out. 

Much  more  in  the  nature  of  true  landscape  are  the 
two  representations  of  this  same  story  w7here  we  see 
Perseus  in  the  act  of  releasing  Andromeda,  and 
handing  her  down  from  the  rock  to  which  she  had 
been  bound.  That  is  on  the  right  side  of  the  picture. 
In  the  middle  is  a  narrow  view  of  the  sea  stretching 
away  into  the  background.  On  the  left  is  again  a 
cliff,  on  which  sit  two  female  figures,  spectators  of 
the  rescue.  Such  is  the  scene  in  one  of  those  two 
pictures  ('  Mus.  Borbon.,'  vi.  pi.  50).  The  other  leaves 
out  the  female  spectators. 

In  a  picture  of  Silenos  seated  and  holding  up  the 
infant  Dionysos  we  have  again  a  high  rock  against 
which  the  group  of  figures  on  the  left  are  placed 
as  if  in  relief.  This  group  consists  of  Silenos  with 
the  infant  Dionysos,  and  Ariadne,  forming  the  principal 
plane,  and  behind  them  two  nymphs  looking  on,  of 

1  <  Mus  Borbonico,'  v.,  PI.  32 ;  vi.,  PL  50 ;  ix.,  PI.  39,  and  xii., 
Pis  .  49  52.    We  refer  specially  to  PL  50. 


430     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AECH.EOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


whom  only  the  heads  and  shoulders  are  visible.  On 
the  right  sits  Hermes  on  a  fallen  column,  and  having 
a  round  tower  as  a  background.  Between  these  two 
parts  of  the  composition  is  a  small  figure  of  Pan. 1 
In  a  picture  of  Dionysos  finding  Ariadne  asleep 2  we 
have  an  instance  of  a  rocky  background,  which  serves 
as  a  screen  not  only  to  throw  up  the  figures  in  front, 
but  also  to  conceal  behind  it  all  but  the  heads  of  a 
group  of  figures  who  are  represented  as  peering  over 
the  rocks  at  the  meeting  of  Dionysos  and  Ariadne. 

It  is  true  that  the  manner  of  filling  in  backgrounds 
to  mythological  subjects  as  here  indicated  cannot  be 
positively  said  to  have  been  derived  from  Greece, 
owing  to  the  utter  absence  of  Greek  mural  painting 
and  the  poverty  of  ancient  records  concerning  the 
condition  of  that  art  in  Greece  after  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  But  we  know  that  the  mytho- 
logical subjects  in  Pompeii  were  themselves  constantly 
drawn  from  Greek  sources,  while  as  regards  the 
backgrounds  to  them  it  has  been  well  pointed  out  by 
Helbig  that  in  those  pictures  where  among  rocks  and 
cliffs  we  see  figures  personifying  sea-coasts  (cuctcil), 
meadows  (Xe/^w^e?),  and  such  like,  we  must  infer  from 
the  use  of  the  Greek  names  inscribed  beside  them 
that  they  were  originally  Greek  creations.  His 
argument  is  that  had  the  Komans  been  the  first  to 
introduce  these  backgrounds  with  their  conspicuously 
named  personifications  of  coasts  and  meadows  to  help 
out  the  slightly  sketched  landscape,  they  would  have 

1  Helbig,  1  Wandgemalde  Campaniens,'  No.  376. 

2  'Mus.  Borbonico,'  xiii.,  7.  Compare  also  ibid.  PL  6  for  a 
variety  of  this  subject  treated  in  a  still  more  complex  maimer. 
This  subject  will  be  found  more  simply  composed  in  the  pictures  in 
4  Mus.  Borbon.,'  xi.,  Pis.  34  and  35,  and  viii.,  PL  4. 


Chap.  IX.] 


431 


employed  Eoman  not  Greek  names.  And  if  this  is 
not  conclusive,  it  must  be  because  the  conviction  that 
there  had  been  a  Greek  original  for  these  backgrounds 
as  well  as  for  the  mythological  compositions  in  front 
of  them,  is  so  unanimous  that  no  argument  will  be 
entirely  satisfactory  short  of  the  finding  of  the  actual 
prototypes  in  Greece. 

In  regard  to  one  of  the  pictures  of  Perseus  and 
Andromeda  mentioned  above  ('Mus.  Borbon/  vi.  pi. 
50),  and  that  of  lo  and  Argos  in  the  house  of 
Germanicus  in  Kome,  also  mentioned  previously, 
Helbig  has  endeavoured  to  trace  them  to  the  Athenian 
painter  Nikias,  of  whom  Pliny  says  that  he  painted 
large  pictures  of  Andromeda  and  Io.  Though 
Pliny  gives  no  details  of  the  other  figures  in  these 
compositions,  it  is  manifest  that  an  Andromeda 
without  Perseus  or  an  Io  without  Argos  would  be  un- 
intelligible. We  must  therefore  assume  the  presence 
of  at  least  those  figures  in  the  pictures  in  question. 
The  story  of  Io  has  been  preserved  in  four  Pompeian 
paintings  as  well  as  in  the  replica  in  Kome,  while  that 
of  Andromeda  at  the  moment  of  her  release  occurs 
twice  in  Pompeii.  Helbig  points  out  that  the  two 
latter,  as  well  as  the  Koman  picture  of  Io  and  Argos, 
have  been  executed  on  a  large  scale,  recalling  the 
expression  employed  by  Pliny  as  to  the  size  of  the 
pictures  by  Nikias.  It  is  maintained  that  the 
beauty  of  the  figures  and  the  excellence  of  the 
composition  are  such  as  to  suggest  a  fine  Greek 
original,  corresponding  with  what  is  known  in  records 
of  the  style  of  the  Athenian  painter.  The  same 
conclusion  forces  itself  upon  us  when  we  observe 
the  freedom  which  the  copyists  have  allowed  them- 
selves in  leaving  out  what  did  not  suit  them.  For 


432      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHEOLOGY.   [Chap.  IX. 


instance,  the  Pompeii  pictures  of  Io  and  Argos  are 
content  with  these  two  figures,  whereas  in  the  Eoman 
copy  we  have  on  the  left  a  figure  of  Hermes,  which 
not  only  balances  that  of  Argos  on  the  right  in  an 
almost  necessary  manner,  but  also  indicates  the 
progress  of  the  story,  with  the  ultimate  release  of  Io 
when  Hermes  shall  have  slain  Argos.  Therefore  the 
Eoman  picture  goes  nearer  to  the  original.  In  point 
of  composition  it  may  be  true  to  the  original. 

In  the  story  of  Andromeda  we  have  also  an  in- 
stance of  the  release  of  a  heroine  from  the  approach- 
ing torture  of  a  monster,  and  this  leads  Helbig  to 
believe  that  the  two  pictures  of  Io  and  Andromeda, 
ascribed  to  Nikias  had  been  intended  as  companion 
pictures.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  Pompeian  pictures  of 
Andromeda  differ  among  themselves  to  this  extent, 
that  while  one  of  them  represents  only  Andromeda 
and  Perseus,  the  other  adds  on  the  left  of  this  group 
two  female  figures  seated  on  rocks,  which  Helbig 
justly  classes  among  the  personifications  of  coasts 
(a/cral)  mentioned  above.  Here  also  the  more  complete 
composition  would  seem  to  be  nearer  to  the  original 
than  the  abridged  versions,  because  it  is  surely  much 
easier  to  abridge  than  to  invent  new  elements  for  a 
picture. 

In  considering  the  landscape  backgrounds  of 
Pompeian  paintings,  a  student  of  Greek  vases  must  be 
struck  with  the  extraordinary  difference  which  exists 
between  these  two  branches  of  art.  On  the  vases, 
especially  those  of  the  best  period,  there  is  only 
occasionally  the  merest  indication  of  a  background. 
As  a  rule  the  figures  stand  or  move  in  single  file,  so  to 
speak.  The  vase  painter  has  no  resource  but  in  the 
perfect  accuracy  of  his  drawing  and  the  symmetry  of 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


483 


his  composition.  In  the  early  and  in  the  late  periods 
he  may  try  to  hide  bad  drawing  by  bright  whites  and 
purples  in  the  accessories  and  details ;  but  that  is  the 
most  he  can  allow  himself.  Even  on  the  white 
Athenian  lekythi,  where  he  may  indulge  in  blues  and 
greens,  he  is  still  restrained  by  the  fact  that  his 
figures  must  after  all  be  mainly  drawn  in  outline  and 
that  one  of  the  severest  tests  of  drawing  is  an  outline 
of  a  figure  on  a  white  ground.  These  considerations, 
so  far  as  they  go,  undoubtedly  tend  to  raise  a 
suspicion  that  the  Greek  mural  and  panel  painting  of 
the  age  contemporary  with  the  vases  had  avoided  the 
indication  of  backgrounds  to  the  degree  in  which  we 
find  them  indicated  at  Pompeii.  On  the  other  hand 
we  have  to  remember  that  from  the  time  of  Apelles 
onwards  the  records  of  Greek  painting  are  explicit  as 
to  the  charming  effects  that  were  obtained  by  colour, 
and  we  know  how  an  outline  drawing  of  a  figure, 
which  in  mere  black  and  white  appears  hard  and  even 
repulsive,  may,  by  a  skilful  use  of  colour  in  the  figure 
and  the  background,  be  made  to  appear  refined  and 
fascinating.  What  we  thus  know,  the  Greeks  may 
surely  be  supposed  to  have  been  quick  to  learn.  The 
first  step  once  taken,  of  sacrificing  drawing  to  colour 
landscape  backgrounds  with  just  enough  of  colour 
to  form  a  true  background,  against  which  the  figures 
would  define  themselves,  would  follow  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

In  front  of  these  light-toned  backgrounds  the 
mythological  groups  which  form  the  great  feature  of 
the  pictures  are  painted,  generally  with  a  reddish 
brown  colour  for  the  flesh,  and  with  greens,  blues, 
reds,  and  yellows  for  the  draperies  and  details.  In 
many   instances  a  prominent  feature  is  the  large 

2  F 


434     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY. 


[Chap.  IX. 


masses  of  light  shed  over  the  fronts  of  the  figures. 
Wherever  this  light  falls,  whether  on  nude  forms  or 
on  brightly  coloured  drapery,  the  painter  assumes  that 
the  true  colours  would  be,  so  to  speak,  scorched  out, 
and  he  replaces  them  by  masses  of  white.  His 
observation  of  the  effect  of  light  was  just,  but  the 
excess  with  which  he  rendered  it  in  many  of  these 
pictures  was  doubtless  due  to  the  limits  inherent  in 
ancient  fresco  painting,  where  the  subtle  gradation  of 
shadows,  such  as  we  see  in  oil  painting,  was  an 
impossibility.  At  the  same  time  there  is  a  fairly 
large  proportion  of  Pompeian  frescoes  in  which  this 
excess  of  light,  flashing  on  the  fronts  of  the  figures, 
does  not  appear,  especially  so  in  those  compositions 
where  the  figures  are  mostly  nude,  and  when  there  is 
no  extent  of  draperies  in  brilliant  reds,  greens,  blues, 
or  yellows,  over  which  an  effulgence  has  to  be  shed  by 
the  contrast  of  strong  light.  Possibly  such  com- 
positions were  not  unfrequently  chosen  because  of  the 
finer  scope  they  offered  for  more  careful  drawing  and 
more  severe  composition. 

Not  that  this  result  always  followed.  Witness  the 
famous  picture  of  the  Sacrifice  of  Iphigeneia.1  It  is 
not  only  that  the  lower  limbs  of  Iphigeneia  have  been 
forgotten  by  the  artist,  but  the  drawing  also  of  the 
two  figures,  Ulysses  and  Menelaos  (?),  who  are  carrying 
her  along  to  the  altar  is  as  ungainly  as  could  well  be. 
And  yet  there  is  a  fascination  about  the  picture  as 
a  whole  which  leads  us  readily  to  accept  the  current 
opinion  that  the  original  composition  had  been  the 

1  From  the  '  Casa  del  Poeta':  4  Mus.  Borbon.,'  iv.,  PL  3: 
Overbeck,  4  Her.  Bildwerke,'  PI.  14,  No.  10.  This  picture  is  fully 
described  and  discussed  by  Helbig,  'Wandgemalde  Campaniens,' 
No.  1304. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


435 


work  of  a  great  Greek  painter,  Timanthes, 1  whose 
painting  of  this  subject  appears  to  have  been  famous  in 
antiquity  for  the  gradation  of  sorrow  in  the  figures, 
culminating  in  the  averted  and  concealed  face  of 
Agamemnon.  In  that  original  we  may  assume  that 
the  drawing  had  been  as  nearly  perfect  as  could  be, 
especially  in  the  central  group  of  Iphigeneia  and  her 
bearers.  In  his  criticism  of  this  picture,  Helbig  2  says 
that  "  it  illustrates  a  stage  of  artistic  development  in 
which  painting  had  not  yet  learnt  to  distinguish  fully 
between  what  is  essentially  pictorial,  and  what  not. 
The  composition  is  severe  with  a  sense  of  archaic 
symmetry.  At  each  side  of  the  centre  group  the 
figures  of  Calchas  and  Agamemnon  respond  the  one 
to  the  other,  while  in  the  sky  above  Artemis  and 
a  nymph  balance  each  other.  Overlapping  of  figures 
is  as  far  as  possible  avoided,  and  in  fact  very  little 
modification  would  be  necessary  to  translate  the 
-composition  into  a  bas-relief.  .  .  .  Possibly  this  picture 
is  the  product  of  a  school  of  painting,  which  like  that 
of  Pasiteles  in  sculpture,  had  set  itself  to  revive  some 
of  the  characteristics  of  archaic  art." 

So  far  it  has  seemed  possible  that  the  sketching  in 
of  backgrounds  and  the  general  love  of  landscape  in 
the  Pompeian  paintings  may  have  been  due  in  a  large 
measure  to  a  national  talent  and  aptitude  in  Roman 
painters,  though  the  absence  of  Greek  remains  and 
•Greek  records  after  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great 

1  Pliny,  N.H.,  xxxv.  73.  See  also  the  other  passages  col- 
lected from  ancient  writers  in  Overbeck's  '  Ant.  Schriftquellen,' 
JSTos.  1735-1739.  In  these  passages  the  figures  mentioned  are 
Calchas  looking  sad,  Ulysses  more  sad,  Menelaos  in  a  climax  of 
•sadness,  and  lastly  Agamemnon,  for  whose  indescribable  grief  the 
painter  had  no  resource  but  to  make  him  hide  bis  face. 

2  '  Wandgemalde  Campaniens/  p.  283. 

2  p  2 


436      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


must  leave  the  question  open  to  doubt.  But  when  we 
come  to  the  choice  of  mythological  subjects  and  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  conceived  and  presented  to 
us,  there  is  no  longer  any  question  as  to  the  Greek 
origin  of  them.  We  have  already  referred  to  instances 
in  which  the  originating  Greek  artist  can  be  traced 
with  next  to  certainty.  But  these  definite  instances 
are  as  nothing  compared  with  the  mass  of  subjects 
from  Pompeii  which  in  their  general  character  pro- 
claim them  at  once  to  be  the  product  of  a  purely 
Hellenic  mode  of  thought  and  a  purely  Hellenic 
tradition. 

In  Greek  art  of  all  ages  nothing  is  more  constant 
than  its  love  of  bas-relief.  We  do  not  speak  only  of 
the  friezes  in  their  temples  and  the  numerous  stelae 
sculptured  in  marble  to  stand  in  the  open  air  and  be 
more  or  less  public  monuments.  For  the  moment  we 
are  thinking  rather  of  smaller  and  portable  works  of 
art  which  even  in  the  wreck  of  the  past  are  still  legion. 
Designs  in  relief  are  to  be  found  in  almost  every 
material,  bronze,  silver,  gold,  ivory,  porcelain,  terra- 
cotta, and  much  else,  to  which  we  may  add  the  long 
series  of  engraved  gems,  on  the  ground  that  a  gem 
though  engraved  in  intaglio  was  primarily  intended  to 
produce  an  impression  in  relief,  that  is  to  say,  a  seal. 
The  coins  in  gold,  silver,  and  bronze  present  a  variety 
and  a  number  of  designs  in  relief,  almost  incredible. 
No  less  extraordinary  is  the  constant  striving  after 
beauty  which  has  animated  the  artists  in  producing 
these  countless  examples  of  smaller  and  portable 
works  of  art  with  their  designs  executed  in  relief. 

An  artistic  productiveness  so  astonishing  even  in  its 
ruins  would  lead  us  to  a  conviction  that  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  Greeks  as  a  nation  must  have  habitually 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


437 


envisaged  its  creations  in  the  form  of  reliefs.  And 
even  if  this  conviction  is  not  justified  in  its  full 
extent,  there  are  at  least  sufficient  grounds  for  it  in 
works  of  art  to  make  us  consider  some  of  the 
advantages  that  attached  to  designs  in  relief  as  the 
Greeks  understood  them.  First  of  all  it  was  an 
advantage  to  get  rid  as  far  as, possible  of  perspective, 
because  what  we  call  perspective  is  a  weakness  of 
human  vision  and  not  a  fact  of  nature.  Looking 
along  an  avenue  of  trees  we  see  them  diminishing  in 
size  at  a  distance,  but  as  we  advance,  the  trees  which 
before  had  seemed  small  become  as  large  as  their 
fellows.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  imagine  an  artistic 
temperament  to  which  this  illusion  would  be  ob- 
jectionable. On  the  contrary,  such  a  temperament 
has  never  been  rare.  In  the  case  of  Greek  architec- 
ture we  know  with  what  refinements  it  was  sought  to 
obviate  the  illusory  effects  of  distance  by  the  curvature 
of  long  horizontal  lines,  and  the  inclination  of  the 
shafts  of  columns.  That  this  was  a  matter  of 
principle  among  Greek  architects  we  learn  from 
Vitruvius,  while  the  perfect  results  which  they 
attained  in  such  buildings  as  the  Parthenon  have 
been  elaborately  worked  out  by  Mr.  Penrose  in  his 
*  Principles  of  Athenian  Architecture.' 1 

But  the  desire  to  avoid  perspective  has  also  this  posi- 
tive gain,  that  in  a  figure  subject  in  three  planes,  one 
behind  the  other,  as  was  frequently  the  case  in  Greek 
reliefs,  the  talent  of  an  artist  was  put  to  the  utmost 
strain  in  the  matter  of  composition.  We  are  familiar 
in  photography  with  large  groups  of  figures  arranged  in 
extended  lines  of  only  two  or  three  deep,  so  as  to  come 

1  First  appearing  in  Pt.  iii.   of  the  'Antiquities  cf  Ionia 
(Dilettanti  Society,  1840),  and  latterly  (1888)  in  a  new  edition. 


438      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


within  the  focus  of  the  camera,  which  also  knows  no 
perspective.  We  see  with  what  ingenuity  the  front 
line  is  made  to  sit  or  kneel  on  the  ground  and  with 
what  difficulty  the  back  rows  are  got  into  positions  in 
which  they  shall  be  visible  with  the  prominence 
which  is  their  due.  That  is  a  crude  illustration  of 
what  the  Greek  sculptor  of  a  bas-relief  had  to  do. 
But  it  may  serve  the  purpose  of  explaining  the 
manner  in  which  his  ingenuity  was  taxed.  He  saw 
that  the  light  fell  broadly  on  the  figures  in  his  front 
plane.  He  knew  that  if  those  of  the  second  or  third 
plane  were  deeply  recessed  there  would  be  a  dark 
shadow  over  them  which  had  no  equivalent  in  nature, 
and  was  objectionable.  He  therefore  strove  to  his 
utmost  to  bring  the  visible  parts  of  the  figures  in 
the  back  planes  as  near  as  possible  to  the  front  so 
that  they  might  receive  a  fair  share  of  the  light,  and 
in  doing  so  his  talent  for  composition  was  called  upon 
at  every  moment.  Besides,  the  first  instinct  in  the 
decoration  of  a  plain  surface,  whether  by  relief  or  by 
painting,  is  to  preserve  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
plain  surface. 

We  have  thought  it  necessary  to  make  these 
remarks  on  Greek  sculpture  in  relief  at  this  stage  of 
our  enquiry,  because  in  the  mythological  and  there- 
fore originally  Greek  compositions  at  Pompei  the 
impression  of  their  having  been  conceived  as  reliefs 
is  of  constant  occurrence.  In  fact  the  published 
engravings  of  them  look  like  so  many  reliefs.  And  if 
it  be  said,  as  it  may  be  with  truth,  that  these 
engravings  omit  all  sense  of  colour  and  perspective 
yet  equally  it  may  be  urged  that  the  pictures  in 
being  translated  into  engravings  have  in  a  measure 
resumed  the  original  character  in  which  they  were 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


439 


conceived.  Be  it  also  remembered  that  we  are  driven 
to  speculation  of  this  sort  by  the  utter  absence  of  the 
Greek  originals.  We  are  trying  to  divine  what  they 
were  by  comparing  the  contemporary  Greek  reliefs 
with  the  Pompeian  paintings  which  represent  similar 
subjects.  Besides,  it  is  to  be  recollected  that  Greek 
reliefs  were  probably  carried  off  by  the  Komans  in 
greater  numbers  than  Greek  paintings,  which  latter  in 
many  cases  could  not  be  removed  at  all. 

At  this  point  we  may  notice  those  instances  of  mural 
decoration  where  actual  reliefs  are  inserted  in  the  wall 
side  by  side  with  painted  groups.  It  is  true  that 
these  instances  are  rare,  but  we  remember  one 
conspicuous  wall  from  Pompeii  in  the  Naples  Museum, 
in  which  are  panels  with  reliefs  representing  Hercules 
led  by  two  Satyrs  and  Silenos  between  two  Satyrs. 
But  of  late  years  we  have  had  something  like  a 
revelation  by  the  discovery  of  a  series  of  reliefs  in  the 
Farnesina  Gardens  at  Borne,  along  with  the  frescoes 
which  we  have  already  noticed.  These  reliefs  (Fig. 
126)  are  sketched  in  on  the  stucco  of  a  barrel-shaped 
ceiling,  apparently  in  one  of  the  rooms  where  the 
frescoes  had  been.  Now  that  these  reliefs  have  been 
put  together  in  the  museum  at  the  Baths  of  Diocletian 
in  Borne,  the  effect  is  very  striking. 1  It  is  an  effect 
as  of  a  richly  painted  Pompeian  wall  which  had  been 
translated  into  relief.  Panels  with  landscapes,  or  with 
figure  compositions  having  landscape  backgrounds, 
have  been  modelled  in  the  stucco  with  an  amazing 
dexterity.  Mixed  with  these  are  other  panels  repre- 
senting only  groups  of  figures  composed  and  executed 
in  the  strictest  manner  of  relief.    The  same  compo- 

1  They  have  been  lately  published  in  the  '  Mon.  Ined,  Supp.,' 
Pis.  32-36. 


440     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  IX. 


Fig.  126.    Stucco  Reliefs  from  Famesina  Gardens,  Rome. 


sitions  are  to  be  found  in  relief  among  existing 
terra-cotta  panels.    Equally  they  are  to  be  seen  often 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


441 


in  mural  paintings,  where  if  there  were  any  doubt  of 
their  having  been  copied  from  actual  reliefs,  that 
doubt  would  now  be  removed  on  seeing  them,  so  to 
speak,  translated  back  into  their  original  character  in 
the  Farnesina  decorations.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
in  these  stucco  decorations  wTith  what  pictorial  skill 
the  panels  intended  to  represent  pictures  with  land- 
scape backgrounds  have  been  executed.  And  this  is 
true  also  of  the  borders  of  arabesques  with  figures  of 
animals  and  fantastic  creations  of  half  animal,  half 
plant,  which  surround  the  panels  and  enrich  the 
aspect  of  the  whole.  So  much  is  this  the  case  that  it 
is  difficult  to  repress  a  feeling  that  surely  in  this 
species  of  work  also  the  Greeks  had  in  their  time 
taken  a  part. 

But  we  have  still  to  notice  a  series  of  paintings 
found  at  Pompeii,  which  even  more  obviously  have 
been  imitated  from  Greek  reliefs.  These  paintings 
are  small  in  number  and  in  dimensions.  Some  of 
them  have  been  executed  in  fresco  and  are  easily 
distinguished  in  the  Museum  of  Naples  by  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  conceptions  and  the  purely  Hellenic 
character  of  the  figures  in  type,  costume,  and  drawing.1 
But  those  to  which  we  shall  here  refer,  have  been 
painted  on  slabs  of  marble,  the  figures  being  drawn  in 

1  See,  for  example,  the  small  panels  numbered  in  Naples  Museum 
9018,  from  the  1  Casa  del  Chirurgo,'  9022,  delicately  drawn  and 
finely  composed  in  light  colours  on  a  white  ground,  from  Hercu- 
laneum ;  9019,  9021  and  9243,  the  last-mentioned  representing  a 
female  figure  painted  in  yellow  against  a  cobalt  blue,  about  1^  feet 
high.  Or  compare  Nos.  9302  and  9304  with  representations  of 
two  tripods  on  which  have  been  placed  sculptured  figures  of  the 
children  of  Niobe,  her  seven  sons  on  one  tripod,  the  seven  daughters 
on  the  other ;  the  figures  painted  in  yellow  against  a  red  aud  in 
part  against  a  faint  green  ground  (' Mus.  Borbon.,'  vi.,  Pis.  13-14). 


442      HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  IX. 


outline  with  red  colour,  reminding  us  of  many  of  the 
white  Athenian  lekythi.  The  best  known,1  and  per- 
haps in  all  respects  the  best,  of  these  pictures  on 
marble  is  the  one  which  is  signed  by  a  painter  who 
styles  himself  "  Alexandros  of  Athens/'  In  the  fore- 
ground are  two  of  the  daughters  of  Niobe  playing  at 
knucklebones  on  the  ground.  To  be  able  to  play  the 
game  they  half  kneel  on  the  ground,  and  this  attitude 
of  theirs  gives  the  painter  an  easy  and  natural  oppor- 
tunity for  bringing  in  the  group  of  onlookers  like  a 
screen  immediately  behind  the  players.  These  on- 
lookers are  Leto,  Niobe,  and  others  of  her  daughters. 
No  more  complete  illustration  of  a  relief  transferred 
to  painting  could  be  desired.  We  do  not,  of  course, 
say  that  this  painter  had  copied  an  actual  Greek  relief ; 
more  probably  he  had  copied  an  older  Greek  painting 
which  in  its  turn  had  been  derived  either  from  a  relief 
or  from  a  still  older  picture  of  a  time  when  mural 
painting  and  sculpture  in  relief  are  known  to  have 
worked  hand  in  hand.  That  there  was  such  a  time, 
and  it  the  period  of  the  greatest  creative  activity  in 
Greece,  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt. 

In  concluding  these  observations  on  the  paintings 
of  Pompeii,  it  is  only  right  to  warn  the  student  that 
in  the  very  just  and  proper  desire  of  preserving  every- 
thing that  has  been  found,  many  specimens  have  been 
preserved  in  the  Museum  of  Naples  which  only  illus- 

1  Helbig,  4  Wandgem'alde  Carapaniens,'  No.  170  h  Q  Mus. 
Borbon.,'  xv.,  PL  48).  Under  Nos.  1241,  1405  and  1464  he  gives 
three  other  paintings  on  marble  found  together  with  No.  170  b.  He 
believes  all  four  to  be  copies  from  important  Greek  paintings,  the 
conception  being  worthy  of  such  an  original,  while  the  execution  is 
frequently  halting  and  undecided.  This  he  notes  especially  as 
regards  the  group  of  the  Niobides  (170  b)  signed  AAEEANAP02 
A0HNAIO2  ErPA$EN. 


Chap.  IX.] 


PAINTING. 


443 


trate  the  more  or  less  depraved  taste  of  the  time  when 
they  were  executed.  In  other  classes  of  antiquities 
such  productions  for  the  most  part  find  their  own  level, 
and  are  not  allowed  to  add  to  the  confusion  of  students 
whose  purpose  is  to  trace  the  progress  of  a  particular 
branch  of  art.  Still,  with  a  little  experience,  the 
inferior  paintings  from  Pompeii  can  readily  be  recog- 
nised and  passed  over.  When  this  facility  has  been 
acquired,  the  pleasure  is  doubled  with  which  we  return 
to  the  numerous  examples  of  a  fine  pictorial  talent 
developing  itself  amid  circumstances  so  different  from 
ours,  with  material  appliances  so  foreign  to  those  of 
our  day,  and  yet  with  artistic  instincts  akin  to  those 
of  the  great  modern  painters. 


444      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  X. 


Fig.  127.    Acropolis  of  Athens,  restored.— Wordsworth's  '  Athens/ 


CHAPTER  X. 

ARCHITECTURE. 

In  attempting  to  treat  within  very  narrow  limits  a 
subject  at  once  so  wide  and  so  special  as  Greek  archi- 
tecture, we  can  hardly  do  more  than  state  a  certain 
number  of  facts  which  have  become  a  part  of  general 
knowledge,  and  indicate  certain  principles  which, 
under  other  circumstances,  it  would  be  useful  to 
pursue. 

Apparently  the  oldest  buildings  of  the  Greeks  were 
huts,  the  form  of  which  we  know,  partly  from  certain 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


445 


primitive  terra-cotta  urns,  which  have  been  found 
(PI.  I),  and  partly  from  expressions  in  classical  lite- 
rature, which  go  to  prove  that  the  shape  of  these 
urns  was  actually  the  shape  of  the  houses  inhabited 
by  the  primitive  populations  of  Greece  and  Italy. 
These  urns  are  elliptical  in  plan  and  are  covered  in  on 
the  top  with  what  is  an  obvious  imitation  of  the  roof 
of  a  hut,  formed  by  poles  meeting  on  a  ridge  along 
the  top,  the  poles  serving  as  a  framework  over  which 
to  throw  a  covering,  possibly  of  skins,  the  result  being 
a  sort  of  pediment  at  the  two  ends  of  the  urn. 
Vitruvius  (ii.  5),  mentions  a  mud  hut  which  still 
existed  in  his  day  on  the  Acropolis  of  Athens,  as  a 
"  remnant  of  antiquity,"  and  with  it  he  compares  the 
hut  of  Eomulus  preserved  on  the  Capitol  of  Rome. 
Pausanias  (x.  4,  1),  speaks  with  some  scorn  of  a  small 
country  town  in  Greece  where  the  houses  had  the 
aspect  of  huts  such  as  one  saw  in  the  mountains. 
This  town,  Panopeus,  in  Phocis,  was  evidently  one  of 
those  outlying  places  which  centuries  of  civilization 
had  left  untouched.  In  the  river-bed  there  were  still 
to  be  seen  the  huge  lumps  of  clay  from  which 
Prometheus  had  made  man !  The  only  noticeable 
monument  the  town  possessed  in  the  time  of  Pausanias, 
was  a  great  tumulus,  doubtless  not  unlike  the  famous 
tombs  at  Mycenae  and  Menidi. 

From  hut-shaped  houses  to  hut-shaped  temples  was 
a  natural  step.  In  the  traditions  current  at  Delphi, 
about  the  origin  of  the  temple  to  Apollo  there 
(Pausanias,  x.  5,  9),  it  is  said  that  the  oldest  temple 
had  been  made  of  laurel  wood  brought  from  the  vale  of 
Tempe,  and  was  in  the  form  of  a  hut.  This  in  time  was 
replaced  by  another,  which,  according  to  the  legend, 
was  built  from  the  wax  and  wings  of  bees.    This  story 


446      HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


of  the  bee-temple  had  been  handed  down  in  tradition, 
but  no  one  gave  credit  to  it.  There  seemed  more 
sense  in  an  alternative  legend  to  the  effect  that  the 
second  temple  had  been  built  by  a  native  of  Delphi 
called  "  Pteras,"  which  would  mean  "  wings/'  and  that 
the  temple  came  to  be  named  after  him  "  the  wings," 
as  we  should  say. 

In  classical  Greek  the  pediment  of  a  temple  was 
often  called  directly  pteroma — "  the  wings."  More 
generally  it  was  called  aetos,  which  means  an  eagle — 
doubtless  an  eagle  with  wings  spread.    It  seems,  then, 


Fig.  128.    Tomb  of  Agamemnon  (?)  at  My  cense. 


a  reasonable  conjecture  that  the  second  temple  at 
Delphi  had  taken  the  form  of  a  bee-hive,  like  those 
primitive  buildings  in  Greece  which  we  still  call  bee- 
hive chambers.  Of  these  the  best  example  is  the 
so-called  tomb  of  Agamemnon  at  Mycenae,  and  it  will 
be  remembered  that  above  the  doorway  to  that  tomb 
is  a  triangular  space  which  may  fairly  be  described  as  a 
rudimentary  pediment  (Fig.  128).  Another  interesting 
example  is  the  great  tomb  at  Menidi,  near  Athens. 
Both  are  approached  by  a  long  narrow  cutting  (dromos), 
which  leads  to  the  entrance.    At  Mycenae  the  entrance 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


447 


was  enriched  by  pilasters  and  facing  stones,  on  which 
were  carved  patterns  of  spirals,  zigzags,  and  circles 
such  as  occur  in  all  primitive  art  (Fig.  129).  The 
tomb  itself  consists  of  two  chambers,  of  which  only 
the  principal  one  into  which  the  door  leads,  is  vaulted, 


Fig.  129.    Restored  pilaster  of  Tomb  of  Agamemnon  (?). 

Mycenae. 

producing  a  striking  effect  of  gloom.  The  method  of 
vaulting  is  not  that  which  was  employed  in  later 
times.  It  consists  of  courses  of  masonry  gradually 
approaching  as  they  rise  until  they  meet  in  a  keystone 
at  the  top.  In  the  inside  the  stones  were  dressed  so 
as  to  produce  a  fairly  smooth  appearance,  and  it  is 


448     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chai\  X. 


believed  that  either  partly  or  wholly  the  surface 
was  originally  covered  with  thin  plates  of  bronze,  like 
the  legendary  chamber  which  Poseidon  made  under- 
ground for  Orion.1  The  outside  being  concealed  in 
the  rising  ground,  which  had  been  excavated  to  make 
room  for  the  building,  was  left  in  a  rough  state. 

A  similar  structure  was  the  Treasury  of  Minyas  at 
Orchomenos,  which  Pausanias  visited,  and  of  which  he 
says  that  it  and  the  Cyclopian  walls  of  Tiryns  were  as 
much  worthy  of  admiration  as  the  pyramids  of  Egypt. 
At  Argos  he  saw  a  tomb  which  he  describes  as  like  a 
pyramid  (i.  25,  7).  And  possibly  the  spirit  which  led 
the  early  Greeks  to  the  construction  of  these  great 
works,  had  arisen  from  a  knowledge  of  the  buildings 
of  the  Egyptians.  At  all  events  it  is  certain  that  the 
"  Treasury  "  which  Dr.  Schliemann  opened  at  Orcho- 
menos, disclosed  a  piece  of  decoration  wThich  seems  to 
be  a  direct  copy  from  an  Egyptian  original. 

There  being  no  doubt  now  that  these  great  vaulted 
underground  buildings  were  tombs,  and  not  treasuries, 
a  question  arises  whether  they  were  older  or  more 
recent  than  the  graves  found  by  Dr.  Schliemann 
within  the  Acropolis  of  Mycenae.  These  graves  were 
disposed  in  a  group  within  a  large  circle  of  stone  slabs 
set  upright  (see  Fig.  7),  suggesting  a  comparison 
with  the  tomb  of  Alyattes,  near  Sardes,  which 
Herodotus  (i.  93)  describes  as  consisting  of  a  stone 
base  (fcprjTrfc)  above  which  was  a  mound  of  earth. 
The  date  of  that  tomb  was  towards  the  end  of  the  7th 
cent.  B.C.  There  is  no  trace  of  the  antiquities  which 
must  once  have  been  found  in  the  vaulted  tomb  of 
Agamemnon  at  Mycenae,  but  on  comparing  those  which 
were  obtained  from  the  similarly  vaulted  tomb  at 

Apollodorus,'  1,  4, 1,  5,  ^aia-TorevKrov  vtto  yrjv  oikov. 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


449 


Menidi,  with  the  antiquities  from  the  graves  within 
the  circle  at  Mycenae,  we  find  them  identical  in 
character.  It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  the  system 
of  constructing  tombs  within  a  stone  circle  with  simply 
a  great  mound  of  earth  above,  was  not  much  later  than 
the  vaulted  tombs  which  were  built  within  an  exca- 
vation made  into  the  side  of  a  hill  or  rising  ground. 
Possibly  also  this  system  had  continued  down  into  the 
7th  cent.  B.C. 

Speaking  of  the  wall  of  Tiryns,  Pausanias  (ii.  25,  7), 
says  that  it  had  been  the  work  of  the  legendary 
Cyclopes,  the  smallest  of  the  blocks  being  more  than 
a  yoke  of  mules  could  move  ;  and  again  in  mentioning 
the  lion  gateway  to  the  acropolis  of  Mycenae,  he  says 
that  it  was  the  work  of  the  Cyclopes  who  made  the 
wall  of  Tiryns.  This  and  the  references  of  Greek 
poets  have  caused  the  name  Cyclopian  to  attach  to 
all  masonry  of  this  gigantic  and  rude  kind. 

It  is  one  of  the  singular  features  in  the  history  of 
Greek  architecture,  as  Semper  has  pointed  out,1  that 
those  vaulted  chambers  which  in  the  early  period  had 
been  employed  for  subterranean  buildings  were  in  the 
culminating  stage  of  classical  architecture  raised  to 
the  tops  of  buildings,  and  thus  furnished  the  principle 
on  which  were  constructed  the  gigantic  domes  of  the 
Pantheon  in  Home,  and  later  the  dome  of  Sta.  Sophia 
in  Constantinople.  The  principle  had  not  been  alto- 
gether dormant  between  these  two  extremes  of  time. 
It  was  to  be  found  in  certain  round  buildings  called 
tholi,  and  apparently  it  had  been  employed  on  a  larger 
scale  in  buildings  of  the  Alexandrian  age.  But 
generally,  we  may  say,  that  during  the  great  classical 
period  of  Greece,  the  domes  disappear.  Their  place 
1  <  Der  Stil,'  ii.,  p.  394. 

2  G 


450     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


was  taken  by  the  Greek  temple,  as  we  know  it  from 
the  many  examples  which  have  survived,  some  of  them 
from  a  date  as  early  as  the  end  of  the  7th  cent.  B.C. 

In  its  oldest  known  form  the  Greek  temple  consisted 
of  an  oblong  cella  to  contain  the  image  of  the  deity, 
and  having  a  roof  which  was  supported  by  a  row  of 
columns  all  round  the  outside  of  the  cella,  whence 
it  was  called  peripteros.  It  is  supposed  that  in  the 
first  stages,  the  roof  with  its  peristyle  of  supporting 
columns  was  independent  of  the  cella,  and  thus 
expressed  more  clearly  than  in  later  stages,  where  it  is 
intimately  connected  with  the  cella,  the  idea  of  an 
overspreading  covering  for  the  sacred  shrine.1 

Or  again  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  oldest  temples 
were  probably  of  sun-dried  brick,  and  that  an  overhang- 
ing roof  supported  by  columns  was  necessary  against 
the  rain.  But,  by  whatever  steps  and  under  what- 
ever influences,  from  Egypt  or  elsewhere,  this  change 
was  brought  about  from  primitive  vaulted  buildings 
with  no  external  appearance,  to  the  oblong  temple 
with  its  sloping  roof,  supported  by  outside  columns, 
it  is  obvious  that  from  this  time  forward,  beauty 
of  external  aspect  must  have  become  a  governing 
ambition  among  Greek  architects.  Hence  the  beauti- 
ful variety  of  details  in  Greek  temples,  which  yet 
never  disturbs  the  original  conception.  We  do  not 
mean  for  example  that  the  different  orders,  Doric, 
Ionic,  Corinthian,  arose  amid  a  competition  of  archi- 
tects to  invent  something  new  and  beautiful.  On  the 
contrary  these  orders  were  developed  at  different 
periods  and  in  different  parts  of  the  Greek  world. 
But  in  each  case  they  embody  a  desire  to  enrich,  as 
we  have  said,  the  external  aspect  of  the  temple,  and 
1  Semper,  6  Per  Stil,'  ii.,  p.  408. 


Chap.  XJ 


AKCHITECTUKE. 


451 


in  particular  to  attain  the  greatest  possible  beauty  in 
what  was  the  principal  feature  of  a  temple,  its  external 
columns. 

The  oldest  Greek  temples  that  have  survived,  are 
built  entirely  of  stone.  It  is  stated,  however,  by 
Pausanias  (v.  16,  1),  that  one  of  the  two  columns  in 
the  opisthodomos  of  the  temple  of  Hera  at  Olympia 
was  of  wood  in  his  time,  and  it  has  been  inferred  that 
the  columns  all  round  this  temple,  together  with  the 
roof,  had  been  originally  constructed  of  wood,  which 
was  subsequently  superseded  by  stone. 1  It  has  fre- 
quently been  argued  that  this  must  have  been  the 
process  of  development  in  all  Greek  temples,  and 
undoubtedly  there  are  features  in  them  all  which 
seem  to  have  been  copied  from  constructions  in  wood. 
In  the  Lycian  tombs  down  to  a  comparatively  late 
period,  we  see  how  an  original  construction  in  wood 
with  the  ends  of  joists  projecting  at  the  sides,  was 
exactly  copied  in  stone.  But  without  denying  the 
influence  of  construction  in  wood  in  the  oldest  Greek 
temples,  we  must  remember  that  the  early  Greeks  did 
not  live  in  an  isolated  world  of  their  own,  in  which  they 
were  obliged  to  work  out  for  themselves  every  step  of 
their  progress.  They  had  access  to  the  older  civilisa- 
tion of  Egypt,  as  is  now  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
same  class  of  antiquities  which  is  found  in  connection 
with  the  dome-shaped  tombs  of  Greece,  has  been  of 
late  found  also  in  Egypt,  thus  proving  an  intercourse 
between  the  two  peoples  at  a  time  immediately 
anterior  to  the  invention  of  the  Greek  temple  with 
its  surrounding  columns.  So  that  the  idea  of  stone 
columns  and  stone  roofs  may,  from  the  beginning, 

1  Doerpfeld,  6  Aufsatze  zum  70  Geburtstage  Ernest  Curtius ' 
(1884),  p.  148. 

2  g  2 


452     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


have  been  known  to  the  Greeks  from  the  temples 
of  Egypt. 

If  the  Greeks  made  a  new  and  brilliant  use  of 
this  knowledge,  as  they  undoubtedly  did,  we  should 
conclude  that  they  had  been  of  themselves  in  search 
of  some  new  and  more  suitable  construction,  for  which 
the  example  of  the  Egyptians  supplied  them  with  a 
practical  starting-point.  In  this  search  they  very 
probably  made  experiments  in  wood,  and  may  in  fact 
have  been  aware  that  the  Egyptians  also  occasionally 
used  columns  of  wood  in  the  early  period.  There  is 
now  in  the  British  Museum  part  of  a  wooden  column 
in  the  shape  of  a  prism  with  eight  faces  and  a  wooden 
capital,  which  might  be  called  proto-Ionic.  These 
were  excavated  by  Mr.  Flinders  Petrie  at  Kahun, 
in  Egypt,  1890,  and  belong  to  the  xiith  dynasty. 
Among  several  varieties  of  stone  colonnettes  which 
Mr.  Petrie  found  on  this  spot,  and  which  also 
are  now  in  the  British  Museum,  there  is  one  which 
differs  in  an  important  point  from  the  so-called  proto- 
Doric  colonnettes  in  the  fapades  of  tombs  at  Beni- 
Hassan.  While  the  latter  want  an  echinus  to  connect 
the  square  abacus  on  the  top  with  the  shaft  of  the 
column,  Mr.  Petrie's  specimen  has  what  may  be 
called  a  proto-echinus.  The  abacus  is  joined  to  the 
shaft  by  means  of  what,  seen  from  the  two  sides,  is  a 
distinct  echinus,  while  seen  from  the  front  and  back 
it  presents  a  plain  vertical  surface,  flush  with  the 
abacus.    The  shaft  is  a  prism  of  eight  faces. 

In  a  Greek  temple  xhe  distinctive  feature,  as  we 
have  said,  was  its  outer  row  of  columns  or  peristyle. 
In  a  Greek  dwelling-house  the  equally  remarkable 
characteristic  was  its  interior  row  of  columns  forming 
a  peristyle  round  an  open  court,  on  to  which  abutted 


Chap.  X.] 


AKCHITECTURE. 


453 


outside  rooms  used  for  domestic  purposes.  That  this 
peristyle  round  an  open  court  was  a  principal  feature 
in  a  Greek  house  of  the  classical  age,  may  be  gathered 
from  a  comparison  of  the  ruins  of  a  Greek  house, 
found  of  late  years  at  the  Piraeus  (Fig.  130),  with  such 
passages  of  Greek  literature  as  that  in  which  Plato  1 
describes  the  visit  of  Socrates  to  the  house  of  Callias, 
along  with  Hippocrates,  who  had  previously  called  on 
Socrates  in  his  own  domicile.  So  also  in  the  houses 
of  Pompeii,  which  may  be  taken  as  types  of  the  Greek 


Fig.  130.    A  Greek  house  at  the  Pirseus. 


house  after  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  the 
constant  feature  is  the  inner  peristyle  round  an  open 
court  (Fig.  131). 

It  has  been  pointed  out 2  that  if  we  compare  this 
type  of  house  of  the  classical  age  with  the  ruins  of 
an  extensive  palace  discovered  by  Dr.  Schliemann 
at  Tiryns,  we  shall  find  there  also  an  open  court 
on  to  which  abut  rooms  provided  with  porticos. 3  It 

1  '  Protagoras,'  14-15. 

2  Oscar  Bie,  4  Jahrbuch  des  Arch.  Inst.,'  1891,  p.  2. 

3  For  plans  and  descriptions  of  these  houses,  see  new  edition  of 
Smith's  1  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Koman  Antiquities,'  s.v.  JDomus. 


454     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


is  supposed  that  the  next  step  of  progress  was  to 
connect  these  porticos  into  a  continuous  peristyle, 
and  this  being  done,  that  element  of  the  Greek  house 


which  remained  its  chief  characteristic  to  the  end,  was 
at  once  established.  Possibly  the  idea  of  constructing 
small  houses  with  fa?ades  in  the  shape  of  porticos  had 


Chap.  X.] 


AKCHITECTUKE. 


455 


been  obtained  from  Egypt,  where  the  tombs  cut  into 
the  cliffs  at  Beni-Hassan,  still  furnish  examples  of 
this  construction.  But  the  further  idea  of  grouping 
small  buildings  with  porticos  round  a  square  inner 
court  seems  to  have  been  as  much  an  invention  of  the 
Greeks  themselves  as  was  the  peristyle  of  columns 
round  the  outside  of  their  temples.  As  regards  the 
date  of  the  house  or  palace  at  Tiryns,  the  fragments 
of  painting  in  stucco  from  its  walls  (e.g.  the  bull, 
Fig.  115),  show  that  it  must  have  been  nearly  con- 
temporary with  the  vaulted  tombs  of  Mycenae  and 
Menidi. 

The  fact  that  external  appearances  were  at  no  time 
of  any  consideration  in  the  houses  of  the  Greeks, 
rendered  domestic  architecture  a  mere  matter  of 
routine.  The  first  object  was  to  obtain  comfort  in  the 
interior,  and  the  second  a  rich  decoration  of  the 
interior.  It  would  thus  have  been  easy  for  a  passer- 
by to  regard  as  mean  and  poor  a  house  which  was  in 
fact  richly  decorated  within.  The  finest  of  the  houses 
in  Pompeii  could  be  properly  so  described  from  the 
outside.  Even  the  houses  of  Sardes,  which  in  the  time 
of  the  rich  and  art-loving  King  Croesos,  were,  according 
to  Herodotus  (v.  101),  mostly  of  reeds  or  of  stone,  with 
thatched  roofs,  may  have  contained  much  that  was 
beautiful  and  decorative.  Still  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  vast  majority  of  the  Greek  houses,  even 
in  the  most  prosperous  age,  were  poor  within  and 
without.  Socrates  is  quoted  (Memorabilia,  iii.  8,  10) 
as  having  objected  to  pictures  in  a  house,  because  they 
drive  away  more  pleasure  than  they  bring. 

In  towns  the  streets  were  so  narrow  as  to  forbid  ex- 
ternal display.  At  most  an  upper  storey  or  a  verandah 
was  allowed  to  project  a  little,  as  in  the  accompanying 


456     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHJEOLOGY..    [Chap.  X. 


illustration  of  a  Pompeian  house  (Fig.  132).  It  is 
said  that  when  a  door  was  hung  so  as  to  open  out  into 
the  street  in  Athens,  a  tax  was  imposed  on  that  luxury, 
in  the  time  of  the  Tyrant  Hippias.1  But  the  new- 
papyrus  of  Aristotle's  '  Politeia '  (c.  50),  shows  that  the 
tax  referred  to  windows  (OvplSes)  and  not  doors  (Ovpcu).2 
With  a  projecting  verandah,  windows  which  opened 


Fig.  132.    House  in  Pompeii.    From  Overbeck. 


outwards  would  be  a  great  inconvenience  for  the  rest 
of  the  street.  In  either  case  we  see  the  constraints 
that  were  imposed  on  external  display  in  the  form  of 
domestic  architecture. 

1  Aristotle, '  CEcon.,'  ii.  4,  states  this,  using  the  word  Ovpas,  as 
does  also  Plutarch,  c  Poplic.,'  20. 

2  J.  van  Leeuwen  in  '  Mnemosyne,'  1891,  p.  178. 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


457 


It  is  then  to  the  temples  and  other  public  buildings 
that  we  must  look  for  illustrations  of  the  Greek  genius 
for  architecture  in  its  high  sense.  They  alone  gave 
opportunities  for  external  display ;  not  indeed  display 
as  modern  nations  with  greater  aptitude  for  it  have 
understood  that  word,  but  display  within  narrow  and 
fixed  limits.  Temple  architecture  began  with  the 
Doric  in  all  its  simplicity  (Figs.  133, 134).   It  advanced 


r<i.~  1  1  

— 

Fig.  133.    Doric  Temple  of  JEgina. 


'to  the  Ionic  (Fig.  135)  with  its  pervading  graceful- 
ness ;  and  the  greatest  extravagance  it  ever  reached 
was  the  Corinthian  (Figs.  136,  137),  with  its  florid 
capitals  and  rich  decoration.  These  were  the  three 
orders  into  which  the  Greeks  classified  their  temples. 
By  the  name  of  "  Doric "  they  indicated  a  belief 
that  this  order  had  been  created  by  the  race  of 
Dorians  who,  according  to  tradition,  had  swept  down 
iin  early  times  from  the  north  of  Greece,  possessing 


458     HANDBOOK  OF  GEEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


number  of  colonies.  The  term  "  Ionic  "  conveys  the 
fact  that  this  order  had  been  developed  among  the 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


459 


Greek  settlers  in  Ionia  on  the  west  coast  of  Asia 


Fig.  135.    Ionic  order  of  Erechtheum.    Base,  capital,  architrave, 
frieze,  and  cornice. 

Minor,  and  amid  the  influences  of  the  Assyrian  and 
Persian  empires.    The  "  Corinthian/'  so  far  at  least  as 


Fig.  136.    Corinthian  order  :  monument  of  Lysicrates, 
Athens. 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


461 


the  capitals  of  the  columns  are  concerned,  was  said  to 
have  been  an  invention  of  comparatively  recent  times, 
due  to  the  sculptor  Callimachos,  to  whom  also  is 
attributed  the  first  use  of  a  marble  drill,  adapted 
to  deep  undercutting  in  marble.  Without  such  a  drill 
the  deeply-cut  design  of  a  Corinthian  capital  could 
not  well  have  been  executed,  and  Callimachos  may  at 
least  claim  the  credit  of  having  perfected  this  order. 

The  names  of  these  three  orders  indicate  principally 
differences  in  the  outer  columns.  The  Doric  column 
had  in  common  with  the  others  a  fluted  shaft.  But 
it  was  characterised  by  the  absence  of  a  base  and  by 
the  form  of  its  capital,  which  consists  of  a  rounded 
cushion  (echinus),  resting  on  the  top  of  the  shaft,  and 
a  square  slab  abacus  (above  the  echinus),  these  two 
parts  of  the  capital  being  carved  out  of  one  block  of 
stone.  A  row  of  massive  columns,  without  hases,  and 
appearing  to  rise  out  of  the  foundations  of  the  temple, 
conveys  a  vivid  impression  of  the  enormous  weight 
which  they  have  to  sustain.  The  shaft  tapering 
upwards,  (entasis),  helps  to  emphasize  this  sense  of 
burden,  to  which  also  the  fiutings  seem  to  contribute. 
The  usual  number  of  flutes  was  twenty.  The  amount 
of  entasis  varied  at  different  dates  from  about  §  to  f 
of  the  diameter  at  the  base,  the  oldest  examples 
showing  as  a  rule  the  greatest  tapering.  Similarly 
the  height  of  the  columns  changed  with  the  times 
from  four  diameters,  as  in  the  short  heavy  columns  of 
the  temple  at  Corinth,  which  is  the  oldest  in  Greece, 
to  six  diameters  as  in  later  specimens. 

Another  feature  which  helps  to  indicate  the  date  of  a 
temple  is  the  shape  of  the  echinus,  with  the  varying 
degrees  of  beauty  which  it  presents  in  the  profile.  The 
wonderful  instinct  of  the  Greeks  for  delicate  and  subtle 


462     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


curves,  as  seen  in  their  mouldings,  asserts  itself  very 
finely  in  the  history  of  the  echinus,  when  we  trace  it 
from  the  earliest,  almost  tentative,  examples  on  to  the 
exquisite  profile  of  the  echinus  of  the  Parthenon. 

The  columns  support  a  heavy  entablature,  consisting 
of,  first,  the  architrave,  next  the  metopes,  i.e.  a  series  of 
sunk  panels  (metopes),  which  may  or  may  not  be  filled 
with  sculpture,  alternating  with  triglyphs,  i.e.  square 
blocks  grooved  vertically  with  three  V-shaped  cuttings, 
and  lastly  the  cornice.  In  what  is  called  the  cymatium 
of  the  cornice,  we  have  again  a  curve,  which,  in  the 
best  temples,  is  of  extraordinary  beauty,  and  indeed  is 
always  attractive.  Its  ancient  name  cymatium  implies 
that  it  was  held  to  resemble  a  long  wave  as  it  begins  to 
break  on  the  shore.  The  comparison  was  singularly 
appropriate.  The  front  and  end  of  the  temple  rose 
each  in  a  triangular  form  called  the  pediment — which 
primarily  served  to  conceal  the  ends  of  the  sloping 
roof — ultimately  pediments  were  enriched  with  sculp- 
tures, forming  a  large  and  connected  composition. 
The  cornice  followed  the  sky-line  of  the  pediments, 
acting  as  a  sort  of  crown ;  the  architrave  consists  of 
plain  flat  bands  or  fascias.  It  is  an  exception  to  find 
it  sculptured  as  in  the  archaic  Doric  temple  at  Assos 
in  the  Troad  (Fig.  62). 

In  the  Ionic  order  the  columns  became  taller  and 
more  graceful.  The  abruptness  with  which  the  Doric 
column  seemed  to  rise  out  of  the  stylobate,  was  in  the 
Ionic  concealed  by  a  base  consisting  of  two  members 
— the  upper  member  usually  swells  outwards  and  is 
fluted  horizontally,  as  if  in  mimicry  of  the  strong 
vertical  flutings  of  the  shaft,  while  the  lower  member 
is  characterised  by  very  deep  and  powerful  horizontal 
flutings.    Occasionally  there  is  beneath  this  base  a 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


463 


plain  square  plinth.  But  the  striking  feature  of  the 
Ionic  is  its  capital,  with  its  volutes  on  the  front  and 
back.  It  has  been  sought  to  prove  from  the  oldest 
existing  specimens  of  this  capital — such  as  those 
found  of  late  years  in  Athens — that  its  origin  must  be 
traced  to  Persia  or  Assyria,  and  in  particular  to  carving 
in  wood  in  these  countries.  It  would  seem  as  if  the 
idea  of  the  volutes  could  only  have  been  conceived 
first  of  all  in  wood.  But  Egypt,  which  has  furnished 
in  Mr.  Flinders  Petrie's  excavation  the  wooden  capital 
which  we  have  already  described  as  possibly  proto- 
Ionic,  may  well  have  had  her  share  in  suggesting  this 
beautiful  invention  of  the  Greeks  in  Ionia.  Beneath 
the  capital  the  necking  of  the  column  is  finely  enriched 
in  the  Erechtheum  at  Athens,  and  in  other  temples, 
with  the  floral  pattern  known  as  the  anthemion  or 
honeysuckle.  The  base  also  admitted  of  varieties  of 
enrichment  such  as  the  interlacing  pattern  in  the 
Erechtheum.  The  entablature,  supported  by  the 
columns,  differed  from  the  Doric  in  this,  that  the 
place  of  the  Doric  metopes  and  triglyphs  was  taken 
by  the  frieze  or  long  flat  band  generally  enriched  with 
sculpture  in  relief.  This  was  the  main  difference. 
The  cornice  and  pediments  were  more  or  less  the  same 
architecturally,  and  always  retained  the  same  love  of 
exquisitive  mouldings,  in  which  bright  light  plays  with 
an  effect  which  is  always  enchanting. 

The  Corinthian  order  represents  a  still  greater 
departure  in  the  direction  of  slightness  and  graceful- 
ness (Figs.  136,  137).  So  that  Vitruvius  (iv.  6-9) 
probably  expresses  a  general  opinion  of  the  ancients 
when  he  compares  the  three  orders  to  three  human 
types ;  the  thick-set  Doric  to  a  man,  the  rich  Ionic  to 
a  matron,  and  the  slender,  graceful  Corinthian  to  a 


464     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


girl.  This  comparison  seems  to  have  been  associated 
in  his  mind  with  the  story  he  had  heard  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  Corinthian  capital.    A  Corinthian  girl 

had  died  and  been  buried 
with  a  pillar  placed  over  the 
grave.  Her  old  nurse  had 
gathered  a  basket  of  flowers 
and  placed  it  on  the  top  of 
the  pillar  where  an  acanthus 
had  already  taken  root.  With 
the  spring  the  leaves  of  the 
acanthus  shot  out  and  en- 
circled the  basket  of  flowers. 
The  sculptor  Callimachos,  in 
passing  by,  was  struck  with 
the  effect,  and  used  it  in  his 
invention  of  the  Corinthian 
capital.  However  that  may 
be,  it  need  not  be  doubted 
that  it  was  Callimachos  who 
gave  its  final  form  to  the 
Corinthian  capital. 

When  we  pass  from  the 
actual  forms  of  the  columns 
to  the  varying  manner  of  dis- 
posing them  round  a  temple 
and  especially  when  we  look 
for  some  historical  order  in 
the    changes    that  present 
themselves  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the   columns,  we 
are  met  at  the  outset  with  a  difference  of  opinion. 
So  far  it  is  agreed  that   the  original  idea  of  a 
temple  had  been  merely  a  square  or  oblong  building 


1 


1  __ 

L 

\s±   

Fig.  137.    Monument  of 
Lysicrates,  Athens.  (Fer- 
gusson's  Handbook.) 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


465 


with  a  door  at  one  end.  According  to  an  ancient 
and  common  modern  opinion  the  next  step  was  to 
produce  a  slight  portico  in  front  of  the  door  by- 
continuing  the  side  walls  forward  in  the  form  called 
antae  and  placing  two  columns  between  those  pro- 
jecting antsB  to  assist  in  carrying  the  roof  (templum 


I    p  I  After 

in  antis).  Semper,  on  the  other  hand,  was  convinced 
that  the  first  employment  of  columns  was  to  make  a 
colonnade  entirely  surrounding  the  cella,  so  as  to 
support  the  roof  independently  of  any  aid  from  the 
cella;  that  is  to  say,  the  first  great  step  was  to 
produce  a  peripteral  temple. 
Certainly  almost  all  Doric 
temples  are  peripteral  and 
the  Doric  was  the  oldest 
order.  We  have  no  historical 
data  for  the  introduction  of 
Prostyle  (with  columns  only 

on  the  front)  or  Amphiprostyle  temples  (with  columns 
on  front  and  back,  but  not  on  the  flanks,  e.g.  the 
Ionic  temple  of  Athene  Nike  or  wingless  victory 
in  Athens).  But  we  may  be  certain  that  Dipteral 
temples  (with  a  double  row  of  columns  all  round)  and 
still  more  Pseudodigteral  temples  where  the  columns 

2  H 


Fig.  139.    Plan  of  temple 
of  Apollo  at  Bassse. 


466     HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


or  rather  semi-columns  were  connected  by  walls,  as  in 
the  immense  temple  of  Zeus  at  Agrigentum  (Fig.  140), 
were  of  a  comparatively  late  origin.  These  are  the 
various  designations  of  temples  according  as  the 
columns  were  arranged,  viz. :  Peripteral,  in  Antis, 
Prostyle,  Amphiprostyle,  Dipteral  and  Pseudodipteral. 

Another  manner  of  designating  a  temple  was 
according  to  the  number  of  columns  on  the  front. 
Most  of  the  Doric  temples  had  six  columns  in  front, 
and  were  called  Hexastyle,  though  the  first  of  them  in 


Fig.  140.    Plan  of  great  temple  of  Zeus  at  Agrigentum. 


importance,  the  Parthenon,  was  Octastyle.  The  other 
forms  were  Tetrastyle,  Decastyle  and  Dodeeastyle.  The 
number  of  columns  on  the  flanks  may  vary.  The  front 
of  a  peripteral  temple  is  commonly  called  the  Portico, 
and  the  back  the  Posticum.  In  large  temples  where 
support  for  the  roof  was  required  in  the  interior,  this 
was  obtained  by  two  rows  of  columns  which  separated 
the  cella  into  a  sort  of  nave  with  an  aisle  at  each 
side.  A  double  row  of  columns,  one  above  the  other, 
was    sometimes  necessary.     These    inner   rows  of 


Chap.  X.] 


AKCHTTECTURE. 


467 


columns  could  be  of  a  different  order  from  those  of 
the  outer  peristyle,  and  might  even  differ  among 
themselves,  as  in  the  great  temple  of  Athena  at  Tegea, 
which  Pausanias  mentions  as  combining  all  three 
orders,  a  statement  which  can  best  be  explained  by 
assuming  that  there  had  been  in  the  interior  a  double 
row  of  columns,  one  above  the  other,  and  that  these 
two  rows  had  been  of  different  orders. 

On  the  subject  of  Hypaethral  roofs  in  Greek 
temples  there  is  much  scope  for  diversity  of  opinion 
and  very  little  definite  evidence,  the  roofs  them- 
selves having  disappeared.  But  in  very  large  temples, 
such  as  that  of  Zeus  at  Olympia,  both  literary 
testimony  and  actual  remains  agree  in  showing  that  it 
had  been  hypaethral.  As  regards  the  Parthenon 
some  doubt  has  been  raised  by  the  ingenious 
suggestion  of  Mr.  Fergusson  that  it  had  been  lighted 
by  a  sort  of  clere-storey.  Nevertheless  the  older  view 
that  it  had  been  hypaethral,  that  is,  open  to  the  sky  in 
the  centre  of  the  roof,  still  holds  its  ground.  Vitruvius 
says  that  hypaethral  roofs  were  rare,  as  indeed  is  easily 
intelligible  considering  that  the  advantage  of  light 
would  be  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  damage 
done  by  rain. 

The  interior  of  a  temple  with  an  open  roof  would 
have  resembled  the  open  court  with  peristyle,  to 
which  we  have  referred  as  the  main  feature  of  a 
Greek  dwelling-house,  and  so  far  would  have  com- 
mended itself  to  Greek  tastes,  whenever  it  was  prac- 
ticable, as  in  large  temples,  to  sacrifice  the  central 
part  of  the  interior  and  to  allow  the  rain  to  come 
down  on  it.  The  statue  of  the  deity  could  be 
protected  by  a  curtain,  as  it  was  at  Olympia  and  at 
Ephesus,  possibly  also  in  the  Parthenon.    Besides,  it 

2  h  2 


468       HANDBOOK  OF  GREEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.    [Chap.  X. 


was  the  aisles  and  the  opisthoclomos  which  were  used 
for  the  storage  of  valuable  articles  belonging  to  the 
temple  or  the  state,  and  these  parts  of  the  building 
were  in  any  case  safe  from  the  weather.  The 
opisthodomos  where  it  existed  at  all  was  behind  the 
cella  (naos),  and  corresponded  to  the  anteroom  or 
pronaos  at  the  front,  with  this  difference,  that  the 
pronaos  was  always  an  open  part  of  the  building, 
whereas  the  opisthodomos  might  be  closed  and  con- 
verted into  a  chamber  for  the  storage  of  valuables. 

According  to  Pausanias  (v.  10,  3),  Euergos  of 
Naxos  (not  his  son  Byges)  was  the  first  to  make  roofs 
of  marble  in  place  of  the  older  roofs  consisting  of  tiles 
of  terra-cotta.  This  happened  during  the  reign  of 
Alyattes  in  Lydia,  in  the  7th  cent.  B.C.  But  the  use 
of  terra-cotta  tiles  was  not  thereupon  discontinued. 
It  lasted  some  time  later,  as  we  see  from  the  many 
remains  of  richly-coloured  terra-cotta  antefixa  of 
roof-tiles  found  at  Olympia,  Selinus  in  Sicily,  Capua 
and  elsewhere.  Terra-cotta  was  especially  suitable 
for  smaller  buildings  like  the  Treasuries  at  Olympia, 
and  when  in  very  early  times  these  buildings 
consisted  partly  of  wood  and  partly  of  sun-dried  brick, 
the  richly-coloured  terra-cotta  on  the  cornices  would 
tell  with  effect. 

The  highest  form  of  decoration  for  a  temple  was 
sculpture,  particularly  so  in  the  Doric,  with  its  severe 
and  simple  lines,  which  invited  the  contrast  of  a 
manifold  play  of  surface  and  light,  such  as  sculpture 
supplies.  The  two  triangular  pediments  became  a 
field  for  dignified  groups  of  statues  executed  in  the 
round  and  forming  a  united  composition  with  its 
central  point  of  interest  coinciding  with  the  central 
and   highest   point  of  the  pediment.     In  earlier 


Chap.  XJ 


AKCHITECTUKE. 


469 


stages,  the  designs  had  been  executed  in  relief  on 
the  back  or  tympanum  of  the  pediment;  but  the 
final  development  was  what  we  have  just  described. 
The  figures  on  the  acroteria  or  highest  points  of  the 
pediments  were  also  sculptured  in  the  round  and 
stood  out  against  the  light.  The  metopes  exposed 
to  the  broad  light  were  sculptured  in  very  high  relief, 
while  the  frieze  within  the  colonnade,  as  in  the 
Parthenon  and  Theseum, 
was  in  low  relief.  We 
are  speaking  of  Doric 
temples.  In  the  Ionic, 
where  the  frieze  was  ex- 
ternal, the  sculpture  was 
in  what  may  be  called 
high  relief,  considering 
its  narrow  dimensions. 

Among  exceptional  in- 
stances of  the  use  of 
sculpture  we  have  the 
columns  of  the  temple 
of  Diana  at  Ephesus, 
which,  both  in  the  ar- 
chaic building  of  the 
time  of  Croesos  and  the 
later  building  of  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
were  sculptured,  at  least  round  the  lowermost  drum. 
Probably  it  was  only  the  rows  of  columns  on  the 
front  and  back  that  were  so  enriched.  On  the 
older  of  these  two  temples  the  spaces  of  the  cornice 
between  the  lions'  heads  which  were  employed  to 
carry  the  rain  from  the  roof,  were  sculptured  in  low 
delicate  relief.  Then  in  the  huge  temple  of  Zeus  at 
Agrigentum  rows  of  gigantic  figures  (called  Atlantes 


Fig.  141.    Telamon.  Temple 
of  Zeus  at  Agrigentum. 


470     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  ARCHAEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


or  Telamones)  were  employed  to  give  an  appearance 
of  supporting  the  roof  from  the  interior  (Fig.  141), 
while  again  in  the  Erechtheum  at  Athens  we  have  the 
porch  of  six  Caryatids  actually  supporting  a  slight  roof. 
It  is  probable  that  in  these  instances,  and  in  the  use 
of  sculpture  generally  on  temples,  the  Greeks  had 
derived  an  impulse  and  many  suggestions  from 
Egypt. 

The  use  of  colour,  which  in  early  times  was  profuse 
both  on  sculpture  and  architecture,  was  gradually 
curtailed  and  confined  to  those  parts  of  the  building 
which  were  in  shadow  and  needed  bright  patterns,  such 
as  the  lacunaria  or  ceilings  of  colonnades  and  porticoes, 
where  also  the  colours  were  protected  against  weather. 
On  one  of  the  lacunaria  or  coffers  of  the  ceiling  of  the 
Nereid  monument  from  Xanthos,  now  in  the  British 
Museum,  there  has  lately  been  found,  after  a  process  of 
cleaning,  a  female  face,  in  three  quarters  to  the  front, 
drawn  in  a  strong  yet  refined  outline.  So  also  in  the 
long  Greek  inscription  at  Epidauros,  setting  out  the 
contracts  that  had  been  made  for  the  building  and 
decoration  of  the  temple  of  Asclepios  there,  we  find 
contracts  for  the  painted  decorations  of  the  ceiling.1 
On  the  exposed  external  parts  of  the  temple  they 
could  not  last.  Besides,  on  these  parts  carved  designs 
with  their  play  of  light  and  shade  told  best.  Fre- 
quently when  a  temple  was  built  of  limestone  the 
columns  were  coated  with  a  fine  white  plaster,  which 
gave  them  the  appearance  of  marble,  if  not  indeed  of 
ivory.  Bemains  of  this  stucco  are  frequent  on'  the 
temples  of  Sicily  and  elsewhere. 

1  Baunack,  '  Aus  Epidauros,'  1890.  Line  59 :  evKavo-iv  tov 
v7roboKLOV  Kai  KvixciTiov.  Line  77  :  KaXyvfiara  avevu  TrpovcoTTozv 
ypd^rat  Kai  KVfxdrLa  Kai  do-rpayakovs. 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


471 


The  question  of  the  proportions  of  Greek  temples 
and  the  curvature  of  the  lines,  opens  a  field  of  the  most 
interesting  study  which  we  can  here  only  mention 
with  the  remark  that  Mr.  Penrose,  in  his  '  Principles 
of  Athenian  Architecture/  goes  fully  into  the  subject. 

We  must  pass  on  to  a  class  of  buildings  which 
closely  resembled  temples.  The  cynic  Diogenes 
when  he  met  the  shade  of  Mausolos  in  the  lower 
world  asked  him  why  he  held  his  head  so  high ; 
to  which  the  Prince  of  Caria  replied  with  various 
reasons,  but  chiefly  because  he  had  a  tomb  on  earth 
as  grand  as  a  temple  to  a  god.  This  was  the 
famous  Mausoleum  at  Halicarnassos,  the  remains  of 
which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum.  A  similar 
rival  to  a  temple  in  form  and  aspect  was  the 
monument  erected  at  Xanthos  in  Lycia,  and  called 
generally  the  Nereid  monument,  the  remains  of  which 
also  may  be  studied  in  the  British  Museum.  It  was  a 
feature  in  both  of  these  buildings  that  they  did  not 
require  any  means  of  access  to  the  cella  or  colonnade 
On  the  contrary  it  was  advisable  that  this  idea  of 
inaccessibility  should  be  strongly  expressed.  Hence 
they  were  raised  on  lofty  basements  and  became  truly 
monuments.  Both  are  Ionic;  but  the  Nereid  monu- 
ment has  this  marked  and  beautiful  feature  that  the 
statues  of  Nereids  moving  rapidly,  as  if  over  the  sea, 
which  are  placed  between  the  columns,  seem  to 
supply  the  place  of  those  living  figures  which  with 
ordinary  access  might  have  been  seen  moving  about 
among  the  columns.  On  the  Mausoleum  there  may 
also  have  been  figures  between  the  columns. 

The  vast  multitude  of  rock-cut  tombs  in  Lycia 
having  fagades  imitated  from  temples  shows  how 
generally  in  that  district  at  least  the  temple  had 


472     HANDBOOK  OF  GKEEK  AKCHiEOLOGY.     [Chap.  X. 


become  a  model  for  the  tomb.  But  in  Greece  also, 
where  a  simple  sculptured  stele  or  tombstone  mostly 
takes  the  place  of  a  constructed  tomb,  we  find  that 
a  very  constant  design  is  that  of  the  front  of  a  small 
temple  with  two  columns  between  which  are  figures 
taking  farewell.  Though  not  works  of  architecture  in 
themselves  they  yet  illustrate  that  art. 

Among  the  public  buildings  of  a  secular  kind 
which  have  survived  in  a  measure  in  Greece,  the 
theatres  are  conspicuous,  as  at  Athens,  Argos,  Epi- 
dauros,  Ephesus,  and  elsewhere.  But  in  general  it 
may  be  said  that,  excepting  the  seats  of  the  spectators, 
which  were  not  perhaps  of  much  account  from  an 
architectural  point  of  view,  the  theatres  had  been  so 
much  altered  under  Roman  influence  as  to  become 
nearly  useless  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  what  the 
Greek  theatre  was  like  in  the  best  classical  age.  And 
that  is  just  what  it  is  so  desirable  to  learn.  It  is 
disputed  whether  there  was  or  was  not  a  stage  for  the 
actors.  Those  who  deny  that  there  was  a  stage  point 
to  the  absence  of  remains  of  one.  But  it  is  possible 
that  in  a  Greek  theatre,  which  was  only  occasionally 
used  for  the  production  of  plays,  not  daily  as  with  us, 
the  stage  may  have  always  been  a  temporary  and 
movable  structure  of  wood.  The  traditions  of  the 
people  would  favour  such  a  temporary  arrangement. 

This  brief  outline  is  but  an  indication  of  what 
is  worthy  of  study  in  the  temple  and  domestic 
architecture  of  the  Greeks.  To  pursue  the  matter 
further  the  student  must  turn  to  books  in  which 
ancient  buildings  are  drawn  as  they  now  stand  or 
are  reconstructed  from  their  ruins  with  the  greatest 
professional  skill.  From  among  many  books  of  this 
class  we  select  the  following : — 


Chap.  X.] 


ARCHITECTURE. 


473 


Stuart  (James),  '  Antiquities  of  Athens.'  First 
edition,  vol.  i.  (1762),  vol.  ii.  (1787),  vol.  iii. 
(1794),  vol.  iv.  (1816).  A  new  edition,  prepared 
by  W.  Kinnard  was  published,  vols,  i.,  ii.  in  1825, 
vol.  iii.  in  1827,  and  vol.  iv.  in  1830,  the  last 
consisting  of  supplements  by  Cockerell,  Donald- 
son, and  others. 

Cockerell  (C.  E.),  6  Temples  at  iEgina  and  Bassse,' 
1860. 

Boetticher   (K.),  '  Tektonik  der  Hellenen,'  new 

edition  1874-1881. 
Semper  (GL),  'Der  Stil  in  den  technischen  und 

tektonischen  Kiinsten,'  vols,   i.,  ii.,  1860  and 

1863. 

Bohn  (E.),  'Propylaeen  der  Akropolis  zu  Athen/ 
1882. 

Puchstein  (0.),  '  Das  Ionische  Capitell,'  1887. 
Fergusson  (James),  6  Parthenon,'  1883. 
Inwood  (W.),  <  The  Erechtheum  at  Athens,'  1827. 
Hittorf  and  Zanth, '  Mon.  de  Segeste  et  de  Selinonte, 
1870. 

Dilettanti  Society,  'Antiquities  of  Ionia,'  parts 
i.-iv.,  1769,  1799,  1840,  1881.  'Unedited  An- 
tiquities of  Attica,'  1817. 

Serradifalco  (Faso  Pietrasanta),  'Antichita  della 
Sicilia,'  5  vols.,  1832-42. 


IND 


EX. 


Achilles,  shield  of,  183 
Achilles  and  Penthesilea,  139 
Acropolis    of   Athens,  archaic 

statues,  249 
iEgina,  temple  of,  457 ;  sculptures 

of,  260;  vase  of,  102 
^Ethiopian,  bronze  head  of,  292 
^Ethiopians,  in  army  of  Xerxes, 

146 

Agamemnon,  tomb  of,  at  Mycena?, 

446,  447 
Agatharchos,  374 
Agrigentum,    temple    of  Zeus, 

plan,  466 ;  Telamones,  469 
Ahmes,  queen  of,  52 
Akesas,  59 

Alcasus,  description    of  sword, 

51 ;  description  of  house,  52 
Alcamenes,  281 
Alcibiades,  74,  374 
Alcmena  vase,  105  ;  Alcmena  of 

Zeuxis,  376 
Alexander  the  Great,  portraits  of, 

290 ;  portraits  by  Apelles,  383 
Alexandros  of  Athens,  442 
Alyattes,  19 ;  tumulus  of,  54,  448 
Amasis,  King  of  Egypt,  49,  75, 

76 

Amasis  I.,  vase  painter,  93 
Amasis  II.,  vase  painter,  99 


Ameinocles,  40 

Amendola  sarcophagus,  296 

Andokides,  99 

Antenor,  93,  97 ;  statue  by,  254 ; 

tyrannicides  by,  255 
Antidotos,  391 
Apelles,  381  fol. 
Apes,  342 

Aphrodite  Anadyomene  of  Apel- 
les, 385 

Apollodoros,  373 

Apollonides,  163 

Apoxyomenos,  288 

Apulian  vases,  106 

Aquatic  animals  and  plants  on 
primitive  pottery,  27 

Archaic  statues  of  Acropolis  of 
Athens,  249 ;  statuette  in  Brit- 
ish  Museum,  263 

Archermos,  victory  of,  247 

Archicles,  93 

Architecture,  444 

Ardea,  pictures  at,  349 

Argonauts,  pictures  of,  by  Micon, 
in  temple  of  Dioscuri,  370 

Ariadne,  chorus  of,  184;  found 
asleep  by  Dionysos,  430 

Aridikes,  349 

Arimnes,  123 

Aristeides,  389,  390 


476 


INDEX. 


Aristippos,  162 
Aristocles,  stele  of,  198 
Aristogeiton  and  Harmodios,  255 
Aristolaos,  391 
Aristonidas,  295 
Aristonofos  vase,  39 
Aristophanes,   passage  on  vase 

painter,  66 
Arkesilaos  of  Cyrene,  79 
Artemis  Persike,  329 
Asia  Minor,  Greeks  of,  82 
Assos,  temple  of,   192;  reliefs, 

193 
Assteas,  99 

Assyria,  influence  of,  174 
Astarte,  340 

Astragalizusse,  group  of,  in  terra- 
cotta, 318 
Atalanta,  140 

Athene,  Gorgon-slayer,  148 ;  Par- 
thenos,  156 ;  bronze  relief,  189 ; 
two  reliefs  of,  190;  peplos  of, 
210;  two  figures  of,  231; 
Promachos,  statuette,  263 

Athenian  lekythi,  103 

Athenion,  391 

Athenis,  249 

Athlete,  bronze  statue,  305 

Babylonian  standard,  356 
Balawat,  gate  of,  179 
Basilica  of  Pompeii,  417,  418 
Bassse  (Phigaleia),  plan  of  temple, 

465 ;  sculptures,  218 
Bathycles,  188 
Bellerophon,  81 

 and  Chimsera,  337 

Bin  tepe,  54 
Boreas,  66 

Bosporus,  bridge  of,  360 
Boxer,  bronze  statue,  304 
Bronze    weapons,    Ialysos,  31; 


dagger,  inlaid,  Mycense,  51; 
incised  designs,  117;  cuirass, 
122;  disc— athlete,  123 ;  Aphro- 
dite and  Pan,  124;  head,  Athens, 
262 ;  leg,  278 

Brunn's  theory,  91 

Brygos,  99,  100 

Byzes,  328 

Bularchos,  picture  by,  358 

Bull,  on  primitive  gem,  46 ;  of 

Tiryns,  352 
Bupalos,  249 
Burgon  lebes,  37,  58,  64 
Butades,  328,  332,  348 

Cachrylion,  vase  painter,  98,  99 
Caere,  vases  of,   85 ;  paintings, 

350 
Calamis,  342 
Callimachos,  368 
Callimachos,  sculptor,  464 
Calumny,  picture  by  Apelles,  382 
Camel,  353 
Cameos,  159,  161 
Camiros  vases,    59;  geometric 

patterns,  59 ;  incised  style,  62 ; 

pinax,  78  ;  terra-cottas,  319 
Candaules,  358 
Capua,  terra-cottas  of,  329 
Carians,  inventors  of  armour,  47 ; 

in  Lemnos,  48 ;  mercenaries, 

51 

Caryatids,  250,  277,  470 

Casa  del  Fauno,  413,  417,  418 ; 
del  Questore,  413;  di  Sal- 
lustio,  413,  414,  417,  418 

Catagusa,  321 

Centaur,  by  Zeuxis,  377 

Cervetri  (Caere),  sarcophagus,  331 

Cestrum,  use  of,  394 

Chalcidian  swords,  53  ;  vases,  84 

Chares,  92 


477 


Charis,  190 
Charon,  66 
Chelis,  99 

Chimera  (?),  on  primitive  gem, 

43,  337 
Chrestographia,  391 
Cimon  of  Cleonae,  97 

 and  Pero,  427 

Cistae,  119,  134  fol. 
Citharist,  87 

Clazomena3  paintings,  356 
Cleanthes,  349 
Clitias,  93,  97 

Collectors  of  gems,  ancient,  167 
Colossus,  244 

Colours  on  sculpture,   191;  on 

terra-cottas,  321 
Columns,  sculptured,  202,  469 
Corinthian  potters,  emigration  of, 

to    Etruria,  16;    vases,  83; 

bronzes,  118  ;  order,  460,  463 
Coroplasta?,  314 

Costume  on  gems,  49;  on  vases, 
112 

Craton  of  Sikyon,  349 

Crete,  early  sculpture  of,  184 ; 

bronze  shields  of,  185 
Crcesos,  columns  of,  at  Ephesus, 

202 

Cronios,  163  , 

Cuttle-fish,  on  pottery,  27 

Cyprus,  seat  of  Phoenician  influ- 
ence, 25  ;  terra-cottas  of,  343 

Cyrene,  79,  81;  terra-cottas  of, 
312 

DiEDALOS,  184  ;  and  Icaros,  426 
Damophilos,  329,  332 
Daphnse,  vases  of,  81 
Darius,  bridge  of  Bosporus,  359 
Death,  Personification  of,  66 
Delphi,  oldest  temples  at,  445 


Delta  of  Egypt,  Greek  settlements, 
82,  86 

Demaratos,  father  of  Tarquin,  332 
Democracy  and  Demos,  picture, 
393 

Demos,  picture  of,  by  Parrhasios, 
381 

Dexamenos,  155 

Diadumenos,    276 ;  terra-cotta, 
322 

Dio  Chrysostom,  2 

Diomede,  head  of,  299 

Dionysios,  366,  374 

Dionysos  finding  Ariadne  asleep, 

430 
Diopos,  332 

Dioscuri,  temple  at  Athens,  369 
Dioscurides,  164 
Dipylon  vases,  32  fol.,  58 
Dodona,  bronzes  of,  289 
Dolon  and  Odysseus,  105 
Dome-shaped  buildings,  449 
Dorian  conquest,  22 
Doric  temples,  457,  462 
Dories,  gem  of,  152 
Duris,  vase  painter,  98,  99 

Echetlos,  368 
Ecphantos,  349 
Egypt,  influence  of,  174 
Egyptian  influence  on  Greek  ar- 
chitecture, 448,  451,  452 
ElpiDike,  367 

Encaustic  painting,  process  of, 

394  fol. 
Endymion,  428 

Ephesus,  archaic  sculptured  co- 
lumns, 202 
Epictetos,  vase  painter,  96,  97,  99 
Epidauros,   inscription    of,    72  ; 
temple  at,  contracts  for  build- 
ing, 470 


478 


INDEX. 


Epidius  Eufus,  house  of,  420 
Epilycos,  vase  painter,  99 
Erechtheum,  order  of,  459 
Ergotimos,  vase  painter,  93,  97 
Eros  in  literature  and  art,  110, 
127 

Esquiline  frescos,  404 

Etruria,  tombs  of,  54,  55 ;  intro- 
duction of  writing,  55  ;  bronze 
mirrors,  121,  129;  bronze  cis- 
tse,  134 

Etruscan  antiquities,  56  ;  pottery, 
85 ;  terra-cottas,  330,  333,  urns, 
335 

Eucheir,  332 

Euenor,  94,  379 

Euergos  of  Naxos,  328 

Eugrammos,  332 

Eumares,  93,  97 

Euphorbos,  78 

Euphranor,  391,  392 

Euphronios,  94,  95,  98 ;  kylix 
by,  371 

Eupompos,  389,  391 

Euthymides,  vase  painter,  99 

Euxenidas,  389 

Euxitheos,  vase  painter,  99 

Exekias,  vase  painter,  93 

Farnesina,  frescoes  of,  404,  406 
Fates,  272 

Fibulae,  bronze,  from  Thebes,  38 ; 
113 

Ficoroni  cista,  135 
Flint,  used  for  knives,  9 

Gamedes,  vase  painter,  92 
Garden  scene,  fresco,  Prima  Porta, 

412 
Gauls,  296 

Gems,  engraved,  earliest,  40  fol. ; 
later,  149  fol. ;  Etruscan,  148 


Gem  engravers'  names,  165,  170 
Germanicus,  house  of,  404,  407 
Ghiberti,  181 
Giant,  196 

Gilding  on  bronze,  307 

Girdle,  silver,  from  Cyprus,  187 

Gitiadas,  188 

Glass  ornaments  from  Ialysos,  21, 
26 ;  vases,  17 ;  imitations  of,  in 
pottery,  18,  19,  21 

Glaucon,  95 

Glaukos  of  Chios,  244 

Glaukytes,  vase  painter,  93 

Gold  vases,  Mycenae,  24 

Gorgasos,  329,  332 

Gorgon,  148,  338;  head,  328, 
335 

Graces  of  Bupalos,  249 
Gyges,  19 

Harmodios  and  Aristogeiton,  255 
Harpy  tomb,  203 
Hawara  paintings,  397 
Hector,  burial  of,  8,  78 
Helena  of  Zeuxis,  375 
Helicon,  59 

Hellenistic  age,  323,  436 
Hemera  and  Kephalos,  335 
Hephaestos,  clay  figure  of,  317 
Herasum  of  Samos,  360 
Heracleides,  391 

Heracles  and  Nereus,  on  primitive 
gem,  44 ;  193,  196 ;  and  Echid- 
na, 197 ;  head  of,  341 ;  strang- 
ling serpents,  376 ;  in  Lindos, 
picture  of  Parrhasios,  380 

Hermes  of  Praxiteles,  279 ;  Crio- 
phoros,  341 ;  by  Parrhasios, 
380 

Hiero,  helmet  of,  123 
Hieron,  vase  painter,  28 
Hipparchos,  96,  254 


INDEX. 


479 


Hippopotamus-goddess,  50 
Hischylos,  vase  painter,  99 
"  Homeric  "  vases,  109 
Horses,  pictures  of,  384 
Houses,  dwelling,  of  the  Greeks, 

452 ;  at  Sardes,  455 
Hut-shaped  temples,  445 
Huts,  vases  in  form  of,  445 
Hyakinthos,  154 
Hypaethral  roofs,  467 

Ialysos,  ivory  statuette,  30; 
bronze  weapons,  31 ;  pottery, 
17;  glass,  18,  21,  26;  form  of 
tombs,  53 

Ialysos,  picture  by  Protogenes,  388 

Ilissos,  271,  274 

Io  and  Argos,  picture  on  Pala- 
tine, 408,  431 
Ionian  mercenaries,  51 
Ionic  temples,  459,  462 
Iphigeneia,  sacrifice  of,  390,  434 
Ivory    statuette,    Ialysos,  30; 
nymph  at  fountain,  396 

Julius  Caesar,  164 
Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus,  fron- 
tispiece and  pi.  xiii. 

Kephalos,  335 
Keramikos,  68 
Kimon,  367 

Knidos,  Aphrodite  of,  283 ;  Deme- 

ter  of,  285 
Kvavos,  21 
Kylix,  Argive,  29 
Kypselos,  chest  of,  185  ;  332 

Laia  of  Cyzicus,  402 
Lanuvium  paintings,  350 
Laocoon,  296 
Leagros,  95,  99 


Lekythi,  Athenian,  66,  103,  364, 

405 
Lesche,  361 

Leto  (?)  on  primitive  gem,  45 
Lions,  confronted,  37 
Ludius,  painter,  425 
Lycia,  rock-cut  tombs,  471 
Lysicrates'  monument,  order  of, 
460 ;  the  monument  itself,  464 
Lysippos,  287 

Mandrocles,  359 

Marathon,  battle,  picture,  368; 

warrior  of,  198 
Marble  xoanon,  9 
Marion,  statue  from,  246 
Marriage,  picture  of,  in  temple  of 

Dioscuri,  370 
Masks  of  terra-cot ta,  338 
Mau,  systems  of  decoration  at 

Pompeii,  414 
Mausoleum,  frieze  of,  221 ;  471 
Medusa,  148 ;  429 
Megara,  treasury  of,  at  Olympia, 

199 

Meidias,  vase  painter,  99,  100 

Melos,  terra-cottas  of,  337 

Memnon,  (pet  name),  99 

Menaidas,  vase  painter,  92 

Menelaos,  78 ;  and  Paris,  136 

Menidi,  form  of  tombs,  53 ;  446 

Micon,  367,  368,  370 

Mikkiades,  247 

Milonidas,  vase  painter,  92 

Miltiades,  96 ;  368 

Minos,  ring  of,  371 

Moulds  for  terra-cottas,  318,  319 

Mourner,  statue  of,  284 

Mycense  tombs,  view  of,  20 ;  in- 
laid dagger,  51 ;  form  of  tombs, 
53;  lion  gateway,  178,  191, 
449 ;  paintings,  351,  353 


480 


INDEX. 


Myrina,  terra-cottas,  311 
Myron,    274,    281;  discobolus, 
153 

Nasones,  tomb  of,  frescoes  from, 
408 

Naucratis,  15;  pottery,  56,  60, 
69,  75 

Nautilus  on  primitive  pottery,  28 

Nearchos,  93 

Negroes,  342 

Neoptolemos,  362 

Nereid  monument  at  Xanthos, 

470,  471 
Nereus  and  Heracles,  193,  196 
Nicomachos,  painter,  391 
Nicopbanes,  painter,  391 
Nicosthenes,  vase  painter,  93 
Nike  of  Pasonios,  264 
Nikias,  391 ;  431 
Niobe  and  ber  daughters,  442 
Nucera,  battle  in  Pompeii,  427 

Obsidian  used  for  knives,  9 
Odysseus  and  Dolon,  105  ;  visit 
to  the  shades,  362,  404  ;  picture 
by  Parrhasios,  380 ;  wanderings 
of,  404 

(Ecopbeles,  vase  painter,  93 

(Enoe,  battle  of,  367,  369 

Oltos,  vase  painter,  99 

Olympia,  sculptures  of,  205 ;  263, 
266;  athlete's  head,  293;  ath- 
lete's foot,  294 

Olympos,  Mt.,  270 

Onatas,  260 

Orchomenos,  treasury  of,  448 

Orestes,  bones  of,  48 

Oriental  animals  on  vases,  59; 

fabrics,  influence  of,  64 
Ostraka,  71 
Ostrich  eggs,  56,  159 


P^onios,  Nike  of,  264 
Painting,  348  ;  Assyrian  influence, 

354 ;  Egyptian  influence,  355 ; 

encaustic,  388 ;  on  box-wood, 

389  ;  Pompeii,  403  ;  on  marble, 

442 

Pamphilos,  382,  389,  391 

Pan  and  Aphrodite  on  disc,  124 ; 

on  fresco,  126 
Panaanos,  367,  368,  371 
Panathenaic  amphorse,  104 ;  frieze, 

208 

Pandora  (Nesidora),  95,  365 
Panopeus,  tumulus  at,  53,  445 
Panphasos,  hydria  of,  89,  99 
Paramythia,  bronzes  of,  289 
Paris  and  Menelaos,  136;  judg- 
ment of,  141 
Parrhasios,  378 

Parthenon,  frieze  of,  208,  212, 
266  ;  metopes,  215  ;  pediments, 
283 ;  plan  of,  465 

Pasi  teles,  sculptures  by,  301 

Pataikoi,  342 

Patroclos,  burial  of,  8 

Pausias,  391,  392 

Pauson,  366 

Pediments,  poros,  Athens,  195 ; 

composition  of,  198 
Pegasus,  on  primitive  gems,  44; 

birth  of,  200 
Peisistratos,  259 
Pelops,  sceptre  of,  53 
Penthesilea  and  Achilles,  139 
Peplos  of  Athene,  210 
Pergamon  School,  297 
Pericles,  225 
Pero  and  Cimon,  427 
Perseus  and  Medusa,  129,  200, 

338 ;  and  Andromeda,  429,  43 
Personifications,  on  vases,  111 ;  of 

cliffs,  etc.,  430 


INDEX. 


481 


Perspective  in  reliefs,  437 

Pet  names  (Lieblingsnamen),  95 

Phaleron  vases,  36  fol. ;  61 

Phanes,  vase  of,  75 

Pheidias,  his  work  on  the  Par- 
thenon, 209,  225,  267,  281 

Phigaleia,  frieze  of,  217 ;  plan  of 
temple,  465 

Philocles,  the  Egyptian,  96,  355 

Philoctetes,  by  Parrhasios,  380 

Phoenician  influence  on  Mycenae 
antiquities,  25 ;  Phoenicians 
bringing  tribute,  21 ;  interme- 
diaries, 25 ;  traders  at  Argos,  24 

Phrygia,  359 

Phrygians,  tombs  of,  53 

Pictures  in  houses,  objected  to  by 
Socrates,  455 

Pinakes  (tablets),  67 

Pirseus,  plan  of  house  at,  453 

Pistoxenos,  vase  painter,  99 

Polemarchos  vase,  69 

Polledrara  tomb,  56 ;  bust,  241 

Polycleitos,  274 

Polycrates,  seal  of,  49 

Polycrates,  177 

Polygnotos,  vase  painter,  99 ; 
painter  of  frescoes,  102 ;  360 
fol;  pictures  at  Delphi,  362; 
style,  366,  368,  372,  391 ;  pic- 
tures at  Athens,  368,  370 

Polyphemos,  39;  and  Galatea, 
picture  on  Palatine,  408 

Pompeii,  terra-cottas  of,  333  ;  con- 
struction of  houses,  413  :  paint- 
ings, 403 

Porcelain  vase  of  Thothmes  III., 
17 

Poros  pediments,  archaic,  Athens, 
195 

Portraits,  383 
Poseidon,  bronze  of,  290 


Praxiteles,  279-283 
Prima  Porta,  fresco,  garden  scene, 
412 

Primitive  vases,  6 

Prize  vases,  67,  104  ; 

Prometheus,  on  primitive  gem; 

44,  143 ;  name  for  a  potter; 

313 ;  picture  of,  by  Parrhasios, 

380 

Protogenes,  386  ; 
Psammetichos  L,  scarab  of,  15, 56  ; 

his  Greek  mercenaries,  24 
Pyrgoteles,  162 

Pythagoras,  149  : 

Quaestor,  house  of,  Pompeii,; 
454  ; 

Eeliefs,  174  ;  principles  of  relief: 
206,  436  ;  in  bronze,  227-234  ;; 
influence  of,  in  Pompeian  paint-: 
ings,  441 ;  of  stucco,  439 ;; 
among  paintings,  439 

Khodes,  pottery  of,  59,  60,  61 

Khoecos  of  Samos,  243 

Eoofs,  materials  of,  468 

Rosettes  of  glass  and  on  pottery, 
26,  63 ;  revival  of,  4 

Samos,  painting,  360 
Sarcophagus  of  Cervetri,  331 ;  of 

Camiros,  356 ;  of  Clazomena1, 

356 

Sardes,  tombs  near,  54 
Sardinia,  terra-cottas  of,  343 
Sargon,  185 

Sarpedon,  burial  of,  8,  66 
Saurias  of  Samos,  349,  ^58 
Scaraboids,  48 
Scarabs,  48,  148  "    .  :  % 
Scopas,  283,  285 
Scythians  in  Palestine,  52 


482 


INDEX. 


Seal  of  Polycrates,  49 ;  of  Au- 
gustus, 162 

Sealing  doors,  161 

Selene,  272 ;  visiting  Endyraion, 
428 

Selinus,  metopes  of,  199 
Semon,  gem  of,  150 
Shalmaneser  II.,  180 
Shipbuilding,  earliest,  40 
Ships  on  Dipylon  vases,  39 
Sicanos,  vase  painter,  99 
Sicily,  terra-cot tas  of,  326 
Silanion,  295 

Silenus  with    infant  Dionysos, 

429 
Silphium,  79 
Simonides,  362 
Sirens,  341 
Siris,  bronzes  of,  232 
Skiron,  335 

Skythes,  vase  painter,  93 
Sleep,  personification  of,  66 
Socrates,  painter,  391 
 ,  compared  to  a  Silenos, 

316 ;  objects   to   pictures  in 

houses,  455 
Sosias,  vase  painter,  99 
Sphinx,  vase  in  form  of,  103 
Spinario,  300 

Spurius  Masor,  house  of,  423 

Statuary,  239  fol. 

Stoa  Basileios,  335,  393 ;  Poekile, 

367,  371 
Stucco  reliefs,  Farnesina  gardens, 

439 

Styles  of  architecture,  465 

Tan agra,  terra-cottas  of,  310, 

323,  344 
Tarentum,  moulds  of  terra-cottas, 

318 

Telephanes,  painter,  349 


Temples,  oldest  Greek  form,  450 ; 
Assos,  192  ;  hut-shaped,  445 

Terra-cottas,  310 ;  mould  of,  318  ; 
common  life,  345 ;  false,  345  ; 
masks,  338  ;  used  for  roofs  and 
cornices,  468 

Theatres,  472 

Theocritos,  426 

Theodoros  of  Samos,  49,  243 

Theozotos,  vase  painter,  92 

Thersites,  139 

Theseum,  pictures  of,  370 

Theseus,  costume  of,  115  ;  of  Par- 
thenon, 269,  274;  and  Skiron, 
335;  bringing  ring  of  Minos 
up  from  sea,  371 

Thothmes  III.,  porcelain  vase  of, 
17 

Thoueris,  50 

Thypheithides,  vase  painter,  99 
Timagoras,  vase  painter,  93 
Timanthes,  389,  390 
Timonidas,  vase  painter,  92 
Timomachos,  391 
Tiryns  paintings,  351 ;  bull,  352  ; 

walls  of,  449 
Tityos,  tomb  of,  53 
Toys,  terra-cotta,  344 
Trimalchio,  118,  237 
Troy  captured,  painting  in  Lesche, 

362 

Turrianus,  330 
Typhon,  197 
Tyrants,  57 

Ulysses  passing  the  sirens,  426 

Vaphio,  tomb  of,  53 

Vases,  primitive,  6;  primitive, 
with  incised  patterns,  10 ;  primi- 
tive, with  painted  patterns,  12 ; 
primitive,  black  ware,  14 ;  from 


INDEX. 


483 


Polledrara  tomb,  15 ;  of  Mycense 
type,  16 ;  Lydian,  from  near 
Sardes,  18 ;  from  India,  imitat- 
ing glass  ware,  19 ;  Dipylon,  32 
fol. ;  geometric,  32 ;  Phaleron, 
36  fol. ;  from  Bceotia,  37 ; 
Aristonofos,  39 ;  use  of,  65 ; 
with  sacrifice,  70 ;  shapes  of, 
72  ;  Apulian,  106  ;  moulded, 
108 ;  black  ware,  108 ;  Samian, 
108 ;  subjects  on,  109 ;  personi- 
fications on,  111 ;  with  reliefs, 
334  ;  comparison  with  frescoes, 
432  ;  of  gold,  Mycenaa,  24 

Vaulted  tombs,  53,  446 

Veii,  quadriga  of,  330 

Venus  of  Milo,  283 


Verandahs  to  houses,  456 
Vetulonia,  tomb  of  warrior,  55 
Victory,   sculptures  of  temple, 

220 ;  slaying  ox,  227 ;  of  Ar- 

chermos,  247 
Vitruvius,  criticism  of  painting, 

410 

Xanthippos,  ostrakon  of,  71 
Xenophantos,  vase  painter,  99 
Xenotimos,  vase  painter,  99 
Xoana,  marble,  9 

Zephyros,  66 
Zeus  slaying  Typhon,  197 
Zeus,  temple  of,  at  Olympia,  205 
Zeuxis,  366 ;  374  fol. 


